Spoils of War
by TheSoggyBug
Summary: The Doors of Death have been closed but the demigods are still struggling. Percy and Annabeth are still in Tartarus, Camp Half-Blood is to be invaded in less than two weeks, and unimaginable sacrifices need to be made in order to save the world from Gaea and her forces. Not exactly meant to be "House of Hades". T for fluff and violence. Collaberation between me and my friend. :)
1. Chapter 1

_This is yet another oneshot that my friend Kassidy and I wrote together. Obviously, we don't own any of Rick's stuff. Check her out as FleetingHermesFeet. She doesn't have any stories, but you can favorite her, just for kicks and giggles._

_Hope y'all like it! Sorry if the end is rushed. You'll understand, though. :)_

**oOo**

**TARTARUS**

_Her skin was clammy and white—caked with dirt and blood—and gory slashes covered her arms and torso and face. Slick, starved blood dripped on the cave floor as Percy carried Annabeth through the darkness._

_Everything seemed to be speaking to him, murmuring words of sleep and oblivion from the far corners of the seemingly endless chasm. It was a miracle Percy hadn't passed out himself; they were traveling through the Cave of Hypnos._

_Somewhere far ahead, the River Lethe ran, bubbling, humming with the fuel of forgotten memories. Percy wasn't entirely sure how they'd gotten there (or that they were there at all), but the faint presence of Hypnos did Annabeth mercy._

_For days, Percy had been watching her go crazy. First it was little things: talking to herself, refusing to sleep unless Percy was holding very tightly onto her. Then it got worse. She started screaming at things that weren't there, running from the invisible monsters (leaving Percy with no option other than to chase her down), trying to claw her way through stone walls until her fingernails were broken and bleeding._

_Percy did all he could to help, but nothing was working. Without his fighting partner, attacks were weakly defended against. They couldn't have survived for much longer. _

_After they closed the Doors of Death, Annabeth hit rock bottom. They were still in Tartarus, and she began hurting herself: smashing her head on the walls, scratching and clawing at her own skin, ripping her hair out, trying to stab herself._

_It was a strange blessing to stumble into the Cave of Hypnos. The atmosphere had mysteriously knocked her out cold. Even Percy had a hard time staying awake, but he had to trudge on, so he did. _

_He remembered Nico talking about the Cave of Hypnos once...and how even getting near the cave caused your eyelids to get heavy and your body to become exhausted. The problem with taking a nap on the nice cold cave floor is that once you fall asleep, there isn't any waking up. _

_It sounded like there were millions of voices, murmuring for Percy to sleep, to feel the embrace of never ending rest. He wanted to do anything to stop his and Annabeth's pain...but something inside him just couldn't._

_He __**had **__to get her to safety._

"You dare threaten my sleep, little demigod? Not many are brave enough to willing dwell where I sleep...What do you want?"

_A single, annoyed voice drifted from somewhere ahead of Percy. It sounded as though it came from someone who'd just woken up from a long nap. He couldn't help but think of fat old Gabe taking up the couch and snoozing like a beached whale...pleasant memories._

_"Who…?" Percy coughed, blood spattering his lips. His throat burned like fire, as did every other part of him._

"Surely you must know. This area IS named after me, Percy. I am Hypnos, god of sleep and dreams. Not that many people acknowledge me, no. Any demigod or human who gets a dream these days and they think Apollo is sending them another prophecy...No one ever thinks of the God of dreams. I always get taken advantage of."

_That was really no time for joking around._

_Percy gently lowered Annabeth to the cold cave ground and knelt, partially out of fatigue, partially automatic respect for the god._

_"Lord Hypnos," he rasped. It was getting harder for Percy to talk...even breathing was becoming difficult for him. "Can you help us? Where are we?"_

"You, Percy Jackson, are in the Cave of Hypnos—my cave, go figure. It's my place of slumber. This cave has no doors or windows, so no one comes and wakes me, but sometimes people wander in, and immediately fall into a deep, penetrating sleep." _His voice had taken on an air of false importance, like he was mimicking the other gods for their usage of vocabulary._

_"Then…how come I'm awake?"_

"You only sleep if I want you to," _Hypnos' omniscient voice heaved a great sigh, as if Percy's question was something he expected a thoughtless mortal to say_. "I know your quest, Perseus Jackson. Thanatos told me you'd probably be coming in...if you weren't already dead."

_"...Thanatos? What...?"_

"Yes, Thanatos. Death, Mr. Reaper...He's my brother. An annoying one at that. Everyone always respects _him, _but no one appreciates me as much as they should...What's so cool about death anyway? It's just a copycat version of sleep."

_Silence for a minute._

"Anyways, I've seen you've been having some trouble."

_Swallowing fearful tears, Percy put one of his hands on Annabeth's cold forehead. "Please. Annabeth and I closed the Doors of Death, but we don't…I don't know what to do now. She went crazy and I…I…" His voice broke and he began to shake._

_"_Come forward, Percy." _The voice grew less bitter and joking, more serious._

_Percy, with trembling, numb legs, picked Annabeth up again and walked. His feet were heavy and ached, but he continued until something blocked his path. A river. _

_The air around the River Lethe was frosty and thin. The water had a cloudy appearance to it. Percy's brain felt foggy just looking at it. Now that they were closer, the humming was much louder and sounded more human. It was like a lullaby, but not quite as peaceful and nice._

"How much do you know about the River Lethe, Mr. Jackson?"

_Hypnos' voice sounded right in front of them, but he was still not in sight. Percy had the sense that he wasn't actually awake and talking to them; it was just his spirit, while his physical form still slept on deeper in the cave._

_Percy knelt, holding Annabeth's bloody form on his lap protectively. "I-I don't know… If you drink from its waters you…you forget everything, or something. That's what you're supposed to do when you die. But...but sir, we're not dead."_

_Suddenly, a ghostly, humanoid form drifted from the river, took a seat next to Percy and Annabeth, and yawned. The form was transparent, but still visible. He could see bedhead white-blonde hair on the spirit's head and a scruffy goatee on his chin. It was hard to make out any other features than that. His eyes couldn't even be seen under the sleepy droop of his eyelids._

"I have an offer for you, hero," _the spirit of Hypnos said tiredly, "_ I can help young Ms. Chase but I have to caution you, the price for salvation is steep."

_"You can help Annabeth...?"_

_Percy looked down at her—his best friend, his girlfriend, his whole world. He could still feel her hand gripping his, the fear in her eyes._

_"Sir...why are you helping me...?" _

_Hypnos slowly turned his head towards Percy, his eyes glowing a gentle gold. _"I am not dumb, Perseus Jackson. I know without you and the girl, the world will have no chance against Gaia..." _He rubbed his eyes with a bitter laugh, "_If Gaia were to take hold of our world once again. Everybody would die. No one would dream...I would fade out of existence. Even my brother Thanatos would think that future as dreadful."

_Percy wouldn't deny that Gaia would slaughter every human and demigod. It was on Gaia's evil list of dastardly things to do after she took over the world, no doubt._

"_If she drinks from Lethe...she wouldn't remember Tartarus? Any of it?"_

_Hypnos yawned loudly and rubbed his ghostly eyes. "_Mm-Hm. Good as new. Sort of. A drop of water from the Lethe can wipe the memory of the events in Tartarus completely out of her mind. Or you could feed her the whole river, it's your choice. All that is certain the price that you will have to pay to drink from my River."

"…_She's all I have down here, Lord Hypnos. I have nothing to offer you."_

_Hypnos just yawned and stretched his arms above his head, gesturing to Percy's pocket with a lazy arm. "_Nyaaawn...I think not, Jackson."

_Just then, something in the pocket of Percy's tattered, dirty jeans began growing hot, enough to make him yelp out in pain. He dug it out hastily and let it fall to the ground._

_Riptide._

_That sword was the reason that the second Titan war was won. It was what gave him the strength to fight as many battles as he has. Without it, he was nothing. He was defenseless._

_Percy bowed his head and touched Annabeth's bloody cheek tenderly. If Percy didn't do this...he'd lose Annabeth forever. She would never forget what happened in Tartarus...she would be like this for the rest of her life. Percy would lose her for good, and if he lost her..._

_He knew that deep down that she would do the same if faced with a situation like this. He'd rather be defenseless and vulnerable than make it out knowing he could of gave up his power to save Annabeth but didn't. He got the hint... In order to save Annabeth, he'd have to give up their only line of defense._

_Reaching over Annabeth, he grabbed Riptide and turned it in his fingers, knowing that this would be the last time he would feel his mentor's gift in his hands. For years he fought with this sword, but right then it looked like an ordinary pen. Not his to use anymore. _

"_If…If you can help Annabeth, then I'll do anything. Take it, take Riptide. Take anything you want as long you'll help her." _

_Hypnos picked the pen up lazily and studied Riptide like it was a boring pen you could pick up anywhere at your friendly Wal-Mart store. With a shrug, he snapped his ghostly white fingers and it vanished, replaced by a single shimmering drop of water on the god's fingertip. Hypnos turned his wrist above Annabeth's head slowly, watching the droplet turn in his finger and slide. The droplet dropped for what seemed to be like forever into Annabeth's partially-open mouth. _

_The whispers and murmurs became stronger in Percy's mind...the corners of his eyes fading into black. Immediately he felt tired, so tired that he was afraid if he slept then he'd never wake up. _

"Sleep well, heroes. The fate of humankind rests on your shoulders."

_Percy didn't have the strength to fight the slumber overcoming him; he didn't even have enough energy to care. He slowly slumped over Annabeth and wrapped his arms around her body._

_With that, drowsiness took over and everything faded into black._

**Argo II**

"It should be right over there." Nico leaned over the Argo's side and pointed towards an array of jagged, golden-brown cliffs. "The cave entrance should be right around this bend. This is the most likely place they could be." That wasn't the entire truth, exactly...

"That's what you said at the museum basement." Leo glared at the Hades-born child with a look of annoyance, perching his elbow on the railing of Argo to hold his head.

They'd been searching for days. After they closed the Doors of Death-and seeing that Percy and Annabeth couldn't leave Tartarus after that-they'd spent every waking second searching for them. Nico had a list of ideas in his mind where they could have popped out, if they were even out at all.

The last place was a cave in the side of Limnos Island in Greece, where a supposed entrance to Hypnos' sacred cave was. There were rumors that Hypnos occasionally directed people that had wandered into his cave out that way, but only the god of sleep himself would be able to open the door.

It was unlikely that the god would let Percy and Annabeth out that way, though. Gods liked payment for doing mortals and demigods favors, and unless Percy and Annabeth had money or enchanted gifts, that wasn't an escape option for them.

There was really no bother checking, since he was pretty sure that Percy and Annabeth didn't bring any sort of payment that the god required for them to leave that way. Surely they didn't pack a few hundred drachmas on their one way trip to Tartarus. Why bother? It's not like there was any gift shops they could peruse. If there were, they'd be terrible products. Who wants an "I 3 Thanatos" or "Tartarus or Bust" shirt? Definitely not Nico.

"What's your problem, dude? Why are you smiling?" Leo was staring at Nico's face with a mixed look, like Nico was some sort of spider he found crawling around on his pillow. He didn't even realize he was smiling until Leo mentioned it.

"I'm not." Nico's gaze slid from the azure water to the crags to the rolling hills of trees that were too many shades of green to count. The sun was beginning to set, sending sherbet colors streaking across the sky and turning the water shades of pink and orange. These Greek islands would be so much more enjoyable if it was better circumstances...

Jason and Frank (who was in eagle form) were down below the ship, flying around and getting a better look at things. There were so many cracks and crevices alongside the cliffs it was difficult to get the Argo II close to them. Unfortunately, the only ones who could fly were Jason and Frank, and two people don't cover a whole lot of area. It took them almost an entire day just search 20 miles of land.

"Has your Percabeth Death radar gone off yet? I thought you were supposed to sense them or something." Leo watched Nico with scrutinizing eyes, leaning against the railing of the ship with his oil-covered arms folded towards his chest. "All I've heard from you is a bunch of nothing. You're just been sitting here while Jason and Frank are flying around endlessly."

"Not true. I've been pointing us towards some leads."

"Leads that have been leading us NOWHERE. You're supposed to sense them, and then we find them."

"It's not as easy as you think. It's kind of like a cellphone...Sometimes you don't have reception, and sometimes you do...but's barely there. A thread I can't grab..." He sighed and tucked his hands into his jean pockets, glaring at the ground in embarrassment. Percy, Thalia, Jason, and even Hazel had outstanding powers. Comparing controlling lighting, air, water, and even precious gems under the ground to Nico's ability to barely control skeletons and sense dead people was just sad.

Still...he understood why Leo was so peeved at him. Percy and Annabeth were locked down in the deepest pits of Hades with no food and no water. It's been days since the doors closed now, and mere minutes were precious. Here they were, almost dark, and still no Percy and Annabeth.

Leo scoffed and rubbed his forehead. "...I'm sorry. It's just...It's hard, you know? Not knowing where they are, feeling so defenseless..."

He looked over the dark blue waters and watched the reflection of the Argo gently pass over the waves. Nico didn't know how to respond to Leo. What could he say? "I'm sorry" just sounded corny. Truthfully, he didn't know if he meant it.

He looked up just in time to see Jason (followed by Frank) disappear around a part of the cliff jutting from the water.

Piper and Hazel walked up from the lower decks and stopped in front of Nico and Leo, tissues being strangled in their fingers. Hazel had her arm locked with Piper's and her cheek pressed against her shoulder, her eyes red and puffy. She was tough for her age, but losing Percy and Annabeth had taken a toll on her. Both of them.

"Any sign of them?" Piper asked quietly, her dark hair blowing in the breeze.

Both boys shook their heads sadly.

"I hope we find them..." Sniffling with worry, Hazel crosses her arms and leans against her half-brother as if for warmth. "I thought that when we closed the Doors, they- _Frank_!"

Just then, Frank the eagle shot up from the cliffs, wings fluttering madly, and came streaking straight towards the ship at lightning speed.

The four demigods scattered just in time for Frank to roll clumsily onto the deck, feathers raining down after. After rolling and hitting the other side of the deck, Frank-still in a daze-collected himself before flying over to the others. He squawked and flailed his wings about like he was trying to tell everyone something important.

"Frank?! We...We can't understand you! You're speaking bird!" Piper snapped her fingers at Frank to get his attention, pointing to her mouth and shaking her head to signify she couldn't understand.

Eagle Frank shook his head in exhaustion and slowly turned back into his human form. He was panting and out of breath and looking like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Frank?" Hazel moved towards Frank, who was kneeling on the deck panting like he ran a marathon. "Frank, what's going on?" She leaned on one knee and placed her tiny hands over his back, her eyebrows raised in alarm.

"Haah...We..." Frank shook his head and coughed, mumbling an inaudible sentence under his breath (or the lack thereof). "Gah...them..._woah_..."

"Frank, you gotta tell us. What is going on? Monsters? Gaia's forces? What?" Leo was on the other side of Frank now, helping him to his feet along with Hazel.

"...We...We found them..." Frank looked up at his friends with hope in his eyes, his reddened baby face creased with exhausted grin.

"P-Percy and Annabeth...?"

"No," Frank mumbled. "The _other _really super important people we're looking for."

It took everyone a minute to realize he was giving Leo sarcasm.

"Dead or alive?" Piper croaked out, grabbing automatically at Leo's coat sleeve. Her body was trembling in excitement. When she peeked over the side of the Argo, she could see Jason's tiny figure dipping and rising madly next to a cave in the cliffs, waving his arms and stumbling, as if having difficulty fully controlling the air around him.

Nico leapt to the railing and gripped it, urgency filling him to the core. "Alive! They're alive!" He could sense it, now that he was aware of their presence.

Leo wasted no time whipping out his X-Box controller and turning the ship so hard in that direction that everyone tripped and tumbled to the ground.

Everyone else-Frank, Piper, Hazel, and Nico-were whispering Percy and Annabeth's names with anticipation and scrambling around, trying to see over the edge.

Unable to stop grinning, Leo held his controller up to his mouth like a microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Put your tray tables up and make sure your seats are in their full upright position. The ship will be landing shortly, but keep your eye out for a couple of very attractive demigods breaching the south shore!"

"Leo!" Piper scolded, punching him really hard in the arm. "Now's _not _the time to make jokes!" She laughed into the wind when Leo gave her a wink.

Everyone was grinning as the Argo II made it's decent onto the open shore, waiting to see their lost friends.

**PERCY**

Percy woke feeling like death. Everything inside of him screamed as awareness came back to him. His legs hurt, his chest hurt, his arms hurt, his back hurt, his neck hurt, his head hurt. Though he'd just been unconscious for gods-know-how-long, everything inside of him felt a million pounds, like he could sleep another year or two.

What had happened? Why was he like this?

Though it was painful, Percy pried his eyelids open and blinked.

The view above wasn't any he could recall seeing before. A cave ceiling loomed high above, stalactites clinging to dark mounds of rock up above his head. There were echoing drips throughout the darkness as water fell from the tips of the stalactites. Everything was dark, so dark, and endless it seemed. All except for a strange sort of light coming from to the left of where he lay.

It was even harder turning his head. It felt like Percy's spinal fluid had been replaced with cement, and it took straining all of his neck muscles just to turn his head to the left.

A splash of dirty, tangled blond hair was spread like a fan out on the cave floor.

Everything came back to Percy so fast it felt like being hit with a car.

Annabeth_. _Annabeth, Annabeth, Annabeth. Tartarus. Hypnos. Lethe. Riptide. _Annabeth._

Somehow, he found the strength to sit up and crawl over to her.

She was still asleep (if that's what you'd call it—sleep). Her eyes were closed and her hair was spread around her face like a greasy, knotted halo, and her whole body was covered in dirt and blood and wounds, but she was there, and they were alive, and the mysterious light coming into the cave was _daylight_, the first they'd seen in...in forever.

Percy found his shoulders trembling with silent tears as he gripped the front of Annabeth's torn shirt with his hands, chest aching, and he gently rested his head down on her stomach.

They'd made it out. They were no longer in Tartarus. Were they dead, perhaps? No, not dead. More alive than he'd felt in what seemed like years.

Struggling with the pain still all over him, Percy stood with shaking legs and wrapped his arms under Annabeth in an attempt to pick her up. There was no strength inside of him, so the attempt was quickly failed and he slumped back painfully onto his knees on the cave floor.

Somewhere outside of the cave—gods, did he love that word, "outside"—something could be heard. It sounded like...like an engine. Maybe. It was very faint. He was so exhausted that he didn't know if it was in his mind or not.

Percy sensed that they were very near saltwater, as well, and even if he hadn't been the son of Poseidon, he could have told by the dull humming of waves against rock. When was the last time he'd heard the waves, or been to a beach? He couldn't remember. The darkness of Tartarus seemed to have wiped all memory of how beautiful scenery could be from his mind.

Wait-water? Definitely saltwater. Maybe...maybe if Percy could get there he could get enough strength to be able to carry Annabeth out...but for what purpose? Maybe they were safer in the cave, but... It was better than sitting in here and doing nothing.

Maybe he could get some food and water for them.

Percy tried once more to pick up Annabeth, wrapping one of his shaky arms around her limp torso and the other under her knees. Using what little strength he had in his knees, he hoisted himself and Annabeth off the ground.

Excruciating pain shot through his body like an electrical shock, making him double over and nearly drop Annabeth. Not wanting to take any more chances, he set her back down onto the cave floor and knelt beside her.

Okay, so picking her up wasn't an option, and dragging her seemed a little rude...

He'd have to leave her if he wanted to get to the water.

That made Percy feel extremely uncomfortable. Leaving her unguarded and in a coma-like state wasn't the sort of thing a loving boyfriend would do to his girlfriend. Besides, he didn't know where they were; for all he knew, he could still be in Hades. He'd rather sit down beside her and stay there for all eternity if it meant she would be safe.

Percy looked back at her form lying on the cold cave ground. She was a mess: her blonde hair matted, her clothes torn, and her skin scratched...but she looked so peaceful. When they had fallen asleep wrapped in each other's arms that late night in the Argo stables she had that same serene face. She could only sleep like this knowing Percy was there protecting her.

She trusted him to know what to do.

Making a quiet promise to Annabeth for his return, Percy got to his feet once more. His muscles were shaking violently under him.

Just this once... He thought to himself. Work for me just this once...

With a groan, he moved his brick-heavy legs one by one. They felt glued to the floor.

It took all of his strength and a good fifteen minutes just to walk around the bend of the cave and stand at the mouth.

He was immediately blinded.

Even though it was sunset (or sunrise?) the light felt like it burned right through Percy's eyes into his skull. The colors reflected onto the endless stretch of water before him, but it felt like staring directly into a neon sign after being blind all your life. Percy was in enough pain as it was—but to top everything else off, he was rewarded with a killer headache and temporary blindness.

Letting out a pained groan, Percy shielded his eyes and limped back into the darkness where Annabeth still lay.

Maybe he wasn't a genius, and maybe he wasn't in his tip-top shape, but being the son of Poseidon, it was plain and obvious the trouble they were in. It was low tide, but was already starting to rise. From what he'd seen, the water was lapping at the cave mouth. If they weren't rescued soon, the whole cave would be flooded with high tide and they'd be goners.

Great. Annabeth and Percy had survived the endless pit of death and torture just to be killed by some water. Even though the latter could breathe underwater, it would be pointless since the former _couldn't._

What now? Everything just felt hopeless.

Just stay here, Percy told himself mentally, taking an agonizing seat next to Annabeth again, putting his arm around her waist as she remained completely dead to the world.

Outside of the cave, the mysterious humming noise was growing louder. It sounded less like humming more like the strained _whirr _of a hard-worked engine. Since it had been growing closer, the shouts began getting clearer. There were multiple voices blending together in an array of cries, both female and male.

Percy could make no sense of it. It just blurred together in his mind, making his heart race with fear and his headache grow worse. It was a complete sensory overload, and spending so long in Tartarus made him a little high-strung and jump at every little noise, so it was terribly traumatic to be hearing things like that.

Gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut tight, he just bent his form over Annabeth's defensively, gripping her shirt with his scraped fists, waiting for the noise to stop.

**ARGO II**

"I could go down there and see if they need help! It'll be a lot faster than flying the entire ship down," Jason croak, his long frame slumped against the railing. He was completely exhausted and his strength was depleted to almost nothing, but he couldn't just _stop. _Percy and Annabeth had risked their lives-in a _big _way. He had to suck it up.

"I don't think so, Jason. You've been helping long enough. You look like you could use some rest." Piper leaned against him gently and wrapped her hand in his, although when he squeezed back it was weak.

His shirt was soaked with sweat and his skin was sun-burnt badly. He'd been out trying to find them for hours, and used up the last of his strength doing so. Jason knew that had nothing more to offer.

"Hehe, yeah Jason," Leo began, swinging his Wii controller around crazily. "We don't need Peter Pan anymore, so just chill!"

Jason quietly turned his head to look at Leo, making a weak finger gun towards his direction. "Zap."

Leo flinched, but nothing happened.

"Hmph..." Jason moved his gaze back over the railing of the Argo II. "Well, someone needs to go down there, or else we need to dock the ship. If anyone hasn't noticed, Frank and I are the only people here that can actually-"

"Fly? We know, Jason..." Leo snorted and pressed a series of buttons on his controller and then shoved the Xbox controller into his magical tool belt, trading it in for a Wii remote. "There's no problem docking. I just press _this _button and..."

At the front of the ship, Festus made a mechanical bellowing noise and the oars faltered their rhythm to slowly turn the ship down into a spiral, lowering them gently onto the water surface.

"That's the cave you saw Percy in, Jason?" Hazel asked, still clinging onto her brother's jacket.

After turning his head towards Hazel, Jason nodded tiredly.

"This place reeks of the Underworld..." Nico grumbled, staring towards a steel-gray cave embedded into the cliff face in front of where the Argo was docked. He could see that the length of the cave immediately turned to the right, so if Percy and Annabeth really _were _in there, then they were still hidden behind a wall of rock.

With the press of another button, Leo had opened a hatch in the side of the Argo, and the ship's gangplank slid from the wall and settled just inside the cave mouth. Everyone but Leo was a little nervous to walk on it, because it looked like it had been put together in just under an hour. It was composed of random bits of metal, some a little bit rusted, and had a couple of holes in the walkway of the bridge. Compared to the rest of Leo's handiwork, this was a project he must've done when he was half asleep.

"Are you sure this thing is...safe to walk on?" Frank asked uncertainly when they were escorted to the beginning of the gangplank. With one quick glance over the side, he could see the water underneath them, ten feet below, and he doubted he could change into a fish fast enough if that thing collapsed.

"Of _course.'" _Leo grumbled, stomping his foot down on the bridge. "Safe as a whistle...or what it as safe as a...? I don't remember, but it's pretty safe." He shook the bridge to demonstrate, ignoring the loud groan it made. "Now, we should probably get some sort of...medical-"

Jason interrupted Leo with an automatic tone of authority. "Piper, you go grab a couple of collapsible stretchers and some nectar, and Leo, make sure Festus knows to _stay put_ while we're in there."

He looked hurt. "You don't think my dragon is smart enough to know NOT to ditch us on some secluded island? Festus is a smart individual like you and me!"

"Can we _please_ get on with the rescue mission? Percy and Annabeth could be hurt." Snorting with frustration and anxiety, Hazel stomped past the two boys and down the rickety bridge.

Nico followed suit with his hands in his pockets, mumbling something inaudible under his breath in attempt to hide how nervous he was, though it didn't fool anyone; they were _all _nervous.

Jason watched the cave come closer and closer into view, guilt and nervousness weighing heavily down on his chest. He genuinely hoped that Percy and Annabeth were okay. He held himself personally responsible for them falling, even th-

"PEEEEEERCY!" Frank yelled, "ARE YOU IN THERE, PERCY? ANNABETH?"

Nico flinched when he heard Frank's booming voice. He quickly snapped his neck towards him with a deathly annoyed face, and hissed, "What the Hades are you _doing_?!"

"I thought I heard something! Like a groan or something!"

"Well, be quiet about it, because—" His face suddenly paled as his gaze fixed on something across the cave from them. Everyone else froze in their tracks as well, sucking in their breaths and becoming so quiet you could've heard a pin drop.

Even in the dark, a good twenty feet away on the cave floor, the six demigods could see two dark forms.

"That's...them." Nico choked out. He was staring into the cave with wide eyes, his jaw clenched tightly together with a gulp. "They're alive..." Barely.

Between on second and the next, everyone got over their shock and let out the breath that they were holding...

"Percy! Annabeth!" Hazel was the first to rush over into the darkness of the cave and fall down onto her knees next to the two motionless demigods.

Goosebumps grew on Jason's skin, and the hairs of the back of his neck stood up. He couldn't quite see them yet, but as he got closer and closer, the feeling of death and dread filled him to his core.

The shirt Percy was wearing when he fell into Tartarus was completely unrecognizable: large gashes from what looked to be claw marks ripped open the once-orange shirt in more than one area; burn marks were scattered across the material and bits of it were torn completely off. Why he didn't throw it away a long time ago was a mystery, but it hardly mattered.

There was too much dirt and blood and torn clothing for any of the other half-bloods to be completely happy to see them.

The excitement was first gone from Hazel. The second she put her hand on Percy's shoulder and he turned his head to look at her, her heart began beating at a million miles an hour and all the color drained from her face and her throat dried up. "...Percy?"  
There were big, dark bags under Percy's bloodshot eyes and there was dried blood and dirt smeared all over his cheeks and forehead, not to mention the nasty gash above his left eyebrow.

Even adding up all of the wounds and the dirt and the blood, what got Hazel was his expression.

Grief and fear and frustration and hopelessness and agony, obviously both physical and mental. It weighed his shoulders down and glossed his eyes over and there had never been a sadder sight than what was seen right then.

Hazel sucked in her own sob and looked down at Annabeth. The daughter of Athena looked in a worse physical state than her boyfriend, but her face was clear of emotion because she appeared to be completely out cold.

Hazel's throat closed up and her small hands shook. "Is she...Is Annabeth...?" She saw Percy's lips form her name with surprise and then he looked back down at Annabeth.

A sudden bubble of fright and anger welled inside of Hazel and she snapped her head back at her other friends, who were still standing near the cave mouth, gaping across the cave. "Why are you guys just standing there?! Where's Piper with the nectar? _Get over here!"_

Through the small crowd of disoriented demigods, Piper stumbled, carrying two folded-up stretchers under one arm and a canteen of nectar with the other. She hesitated for a brief second when she caught a glimpse of Percy and Annabeth, and her eyes glazed over with momentary panic before she pulled herself together and dropped down next to the other three.

It was obvious that she, as well as Hazel, wanted to throw her arms around the both of their once-lost friends, but first things first. Piper focused on Annabeth and getting a spoonful of nectar in her mouth before turning to Percy.

"I'm..." Piper said, clearing her throat in a failed attempt to keep tears from her eyes. "I'm really glad you guys are alive, Percy. We've got you now." She held the container of nectar up for him to drinks some, but he pushed it away.

"Help Annabeth...first," he ordered in a breaking, hoarse voice, and began to stand, his girlfriend limp in his arms.

Like the last time Percy tried to pick Annabeth up, it didn't work, but that time there were people to catch them. The other four demigods—Frank, Leo, Nico, and Jason—snapped out of their trances just in time to rush forwards. Jason and Hazel grabbed onto Percy's ripped shirt to stop him from falling as his knees buckled, and Piper and Leo clumsily caught Annabeth's motionless body as it slipped from Percy's grasp.

Within seconds, the stretchers were unfolded and Annabeth was placed on one. Percy just shook his head, and insisted on walking next to Annabeth. His body swayed downwards when he walked, his body unable to provide any more effort. The cuts on his lower legs opened and began bleeding, soaking through his pants and creating bloody footsteps as he stumbled to maintain his balance. Nico could tell he was in enormous pain, but he didn't understand why Percy was refusing help.

"You're half-dead, Percy," Nico said, steadying his friend. "You just need to calm down and rest."

Percy ignored the son of Hades and did his best to keep up with the pace that Annabeth was being carried back into the Argo II. He stared at Annabeth's body on the stretcher with a face free of emotion, except for those reddened sad eyes he wore.

When they got outside of the cave and onto the gangplank, he stumbled and briefly fell from the agonizing light again, but Jason helped him up and kept a firm grip on his arm as they proceeded onward up the ramp.

An agonizing silence hovered over the demigods. It was hard to say any words of comfort towards Percy when he looked the way he did, and it was out of the question to try to talk to him about Annabeth. The only option was to stay silent for the moment, so that's what they did, all the way up to the sickbay.

"We've got it from here, Percy, it's alright," Piper said, patting his shoulder gingerly. "She'll be just fine."

Percy turned his gaze towards Piper's hand with in silence, staring at it until she raised her hand off his shoulder and walked the stretcher into the sickbay with Hazel, who gave him one last sad nod before closing the door behind her.

"Come on, dude." Leo took one of Percy's arms (with Jason taking the other, and Frank and Nico following silently). "Let's get you to the kitchen. You look skinnier than my cousin Angelina on her deathbed."

Percy shook his head stiffly. "No. I just-" His voice caught in his throat and he coughed violently into a hand, leaving it slick with blood.

"Oh my gods..." Jason stared at the bloody hand in disbelief and then back at Leo. "That's not good."

Leo returned Jason's gaze with an open mouthed look of surprise, shaking his head slowly. "N-no, no it's not. Percy, you need medical help, or-or _something._"

"Did Percy cough up b-blood...?" Frank gulped, scrunching his shirt up in his fists as though he felt the pain in his own chest. He looked so spooked his skin was turning pale; he looked like he was going to throw up.

"Yes, Frank, he did. If you're too squeamish you can go see if Coach Hedge has peeled himself away from his Kung-Fu marathon long enough to know that we actually found Percy and Annabeth. Last thing Percy needs is to watch you throwing up."

"I...I just want to sit." Percy injected, craning his neck towards Jason, sea green eyes meeting sky blue. "No medicine, nothing. Just…sit." He sighed and hung his head, as if his neck was unable to support the weight of his head any longer.

The other boys pursed their lips, but it was Nico that was the next to speak.

"We can take you to your, uh, room and-"

"I want to see the stars."

"Oh. Uh..." Nico's eyebrows raised and then furrowed. "We can...stick a chair up on the deck. And uh..."

"We'll bring you some food. Ambrosia or something." Jason agreed. "But I don't think it's a good idea to leave you alone, Perce."

"Good..." He breathed back in response, reading up to weakly smear away a drip of blood from his lips. "I'm...glad."

Leo shook his head, but—for once—said nothing.

After Frank fetched the extra metal chairs from the dining hall, Jason and Leo carefully led Percy to the box of the ship. The son of Poseidon hung limp in the support of his friends, doing his best on walking by his own, but failing.

"There you go." Jason set his friend on the chair and glanced upwards. "Good thing the sky is clear tonight. I've never seen brighter stars."

There was a tired, small smile on Percy's face and he agreed silently, though his eyes were glued on the twinkling orbs above them. They looked like…like light shining on the other side of a wall that had been punctured by a million bullets.

Percy stared until he began feeling light-headed.

"Whoa, hey!" Leo was the first one to notice when the son of Poseidon passed out, and he unsurely poked Percy's slack face. "You okay, man?"

Of course, Percy didn't respond. His head was rolled onto his shoulder and his eyes were only halfway shut, exposing the whites. A tiny stream of drool escaped the corner of his lips.

"He'll be fine." Once he checked for a pulse and found it there, Jason just stood back up straight and sighed. "He needed some rest."

For a minute, they were silent, kind of looking at one another and at their unconscious friend uncertainly.

"We should check on the girls."

The other two nodded, and they turned and walked uncertainly away, leaving Percy asleep in the stillness of the coming night.

**oOo**

_Thanks for reading our very first chapter of our story! Sorry it's kind of...well, this chapter was just a chunk of a bigger chapter that was going to be our first, but it turned out to be over 10,000 words so we needed to cut it off early. Don't worry, though, there WILL BE MORE CHAPTERS. And a bunch more fluff. A ton. Percabeth galore. _

_Don't lose hope on this story, it will be fantastic. Next chapter especially, I think y'all will like. :)_

_Don't forget to review, please!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Monsters and blood and screaming. Bloody fingers and a glimpse of blond hair as Percy ran in his dream. The ground shook and wails pierced the dark. The whole scene flickered like a bad connection on TV, and then he saw Annabeth. She was pinned up against the wall by…by something. It had its claws closed around her throat and she looked dead._

_ A bib of deep scarlet blood coated her mouth and ran down her front, soaking her shirt and she struggled, kicking feebly, but knowing she wasn't getting out of it._

_ "Annabeth!" Percy tried screaming, but his lungs were full of sand. He tried running to her, but his feet were too heavy._

_No matter how much he flailed and cried out, there was no choice. Even his eyes wouldn't close; all that he saw and felt was Annabeth as she remained pinned to a wall, bleeding to death and struggling to breathe._

_ A hissing voice filled his ears and he made one last effort and opened his mouth to scream Annabeth's name._

Frank was just heading onto the deck when he heard a terrible noise. Without thinking, he ran forwards, nearly running into Percy.

Percy was on his feet, but hunched over, trembling. Sounds gurgled up from his throat, full of terror, and it sounded like he was choking, lungs rasping with liquid every time he inhaled. It shook Percy's body madly as he gripped at his elbows and stumbled around.

"Percy!" Frank exclaimed, startled. "Percy, are you okay?"

When Frank grabbed Percy's shoulders, the latter's back arched and his eyes flew open, a gasp rattled down his throat.

"Oouuuhh…" A moan escaped Percy's mouth, and he looked around him with an expression of fear and confusion from half-drooped eyelids. When he finally saw the big son of Mars standing in front of him with hands on his shoulders, he seemed to remember what had happened. "Am I… Where…" Percy swallowed. "How's Annabeth?"

Frank looked startled. "She's fine. Hazel and Piper are taking care of her. But what about you? You just had a…a fit or something."

"…Nightmare." Though his whole body still felt like fire, Percy managed to speak a little clearer and glance around at his surroundings. "…What time is it?"

The sun was heading downwards, turning just the edge of the horizon purple. The light was a low purplish sherbet, washing the Mediterranean Sea and kissed the sides of the Argo II where it remained docked at the side of the island. He'd been out all night and slept through the day. Maybe even several days.

"Um…" Frank looked back in the direction he came and shrugged a little bit. "I'm not entirely sure. I'm thinking around six. Six thirty. I was just coming to see if you're doing ok—"

"Percy!"

Out of the shadows of dawn came Hazel, running, her curly cinnamon-toast-colored hair bouncing. When she saw the two guys, she stopped.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting anything," she said. The lighting made her face look even softer, and her caramel eyes shone. "Is everything alright?"

After glancing briefly at the other guy—who was pale and hunched over and twitching—Frank shrugged again. "Yeah. Everything's cool."

Hazel looked at Percy and touched his arm with concern. "Don't worry, Percy," she said, and dimples appeared on her cheeks when she grinned. "Hey, uh… Annabeth's awake. She wants to see you. Do you think you can walk alright?"

Past all of the pain and exhaustion and worry, excitement made Percy's heart leap up into his chest and he stood a little straighter. "I'm fine. I just…need to talk to her."

Everything inside him seemed to burn red-hot, though he wasn't angry. All that was running through his mind were the last memories he had of Annabeth when she was actually awake.

She had stopped screaming around an hour before, and he was all but dragging her by a hand. Her face was covered in iron-smelling crimson liquid from when she tried to scratch her own eyes out. Every time he tried looking over at her and asking if she needed to stop and rest, she'd just let out a long moan and blood would fall from her mouth onto the ground. That went on until they finally stumbled into the Cave of Hypnos and she collapsed sideways onto him.

"Percy?"

He could still feel the weight of Annabeth's body in his arms, thinking, _I can't do this_, seeing all the blood—her blood—on his own clothing.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Percy was forced back to the present, and he realized that he'd just been standing there, staring off into space as his two friends kept calling his name.

Shaking his head to clear the traces of memories, Percy glanced down at Hazel and furrowed his brow, feeling the slight movement reopen the nasty wound on his forehead.

"Please take me to Annabeth." He took her arm, partially to steady himself, partially to reassure her. "I'll be okay."

It was slow work, getting to Annabeth's room. Every few steps Percy needed to stop and breathe and try not to fall over. Eventually, however, they made it. He was covered in sweat and his face was slick with new blood from reopened wounds, but he was there.

"You got it from here?" Hazel asked gently, and got a nod in response.

With only a nervous look back, she and Frank put their arms around each other and left.

Percy was concerned about what he'd find. Well, "concerned" was a bit of an understatement. He was absolutely terrified, but knew he had little choice, so he sucked it up and entered Annabeth's room.

The first thing he saw was Piper. She was sitting on a chair next to the bed, and turned when Percy entered. A fresh, red scar had been scratched across her cheek since he'd last seen her, but she looked otherwise okay.

"It's good to have you both back, Percy." Piper stood, patted his shoulder gently, and began leaving. "Shout if you need anything, okay? We'll be right here when you need us."

The door clicked behind her.

After she left, Percy looked back at the bed and saw Annabeth there, lying on the bed. Annabeth, awake and intact. The wounds all over her face and arms and neck were cleaned up and healing, most of the dirt washed away from her skin.

The other two girls had obviously got her into better clothing, too. Even her expression looked more intact, more whole. Not half-dead.

Percy felt his insides melt and a lump begin growing inside of his throat. Relief stung his eyes, blurring his vision.

_Annabeth_.

The name shaped itself on his lips.

She was really…okay. She was no crazy or…or dead, but safe and alive and recovering. All Percy wanted to do was wrap her in his arms and kiss her face and hold her tight.

"_What happened_?" Annabeth's voice was a little dry and rough, but as strong as it had ever been, and not at all pleased.

Emotions seemed to pause inside of Percy as he did a sort of double-take. When he didn't answer, Annabeth stood, sweeping blankets off of her legs. She moved like she was a little sore, but in amazing shape considering all that happened.

But her eyes… They were wide and shining with frightened tears, and her fists were balled in anger.

"I…Annabeth?" Percy blinked in surprise.

Annabeth just repeated herself. "What happened? What did you do to me?"

All of the relief and joy Percy had felt changed quickly to surprise and a little bit of panic. "What? What do—?"

"I don't remember _anything_!" Shaking and fighting off the tears in her eyes, Annabeth loosened a hand to point her finger at him accusingly. "I…I can't remember what happened, and by the gods, if you don't tell me _exactly_ what you did to me, then…then…" She inhaled shakily, and all of her fervency and momentary adrenaline seemed to drain away until she looked as weak as Percy felt. Her legs quake and she sat down hard on her bed. "Please. Please tell me."

As scared as Annabeth looked, Percy didn't want to tell her anything. It felt like one of those secrets that needed to be kept, _especially_ from her. There was a reason he'd agreed to wiping her memories of Tartarus. Just telling her again would've defeated the purpose.

Treading gently on the situation, Percy took a seat on the bed next to Annabeth and licked his bleeding lips nervously. "Annabeth, I know this is…aggravating, and-and a little frightening, but for your sake, you're just going to have to trust me when I say that I _really_ shouldn't tell you."

There was a silence for a minute, when Annabeth just stared down at her hands. When she finally looked up again, her expression was hard.

"It feels like a piece of my brain has been removed, Percy," she said quietly. "You know what it's like getting your memory taken away. I'm…I'm not entirely sure that's what happened, but you…you didn't have anyone to explain anything to you. I have you. I understand we…we fell into Tartarus. You don't have to tell me the exact details, but at least tell me why you did it. If…you were the one to blame."

Percy didn't want to. He couldn't, but before he could stop himself, his mouth opened and he told her.

"You _WHAT_?!" Annabeth stood again, grabbing her head with both hands as if she couldn't believe it. "You traded…for my… _WHAT_?"

"I had no choice, Annabeth." Beads of sweat appeared on Percy's forehead. He hated when Annabeth was angry, but being angry at him for something like that was all but a death sentence. "Please. Don't be angry."

"How can I not be angry?" She tried breathing deeply, pressing her palms against her eyes, and paced the room with unsteady legs. Then she stopped and turned to him again. "Maybe you're not seeing what I'm seeing, but you're…you're pretty much the…the leader of this little group. To give up Riptide is like a lion giving up his claws."

"I'm not a lion," he pointed out, but cringed right after, as if expecting her to hit him.

"You understand what I mean," Annabeth hissed menacingly, but it was interrupted by a little hiccup. "Look, Perce. Take no offense when I say, without Riptide, you're…well, you're not really such a huge hero. By giving it away, you've just…"

"…Doomed the world?" Though he did take a little offense, Percy just sighed dejectedly. "You…you went mad, Annabeth. You wouldn't have otherwise made it out. I would've…I would've lost you."

Wiping her eyes on her sleeve, Annabeth just sat down again. There were streaks of saltwater on her face when she looked up at him. She wore an expression of aimlessness and dread. "But…_why,_ Percy? You gave your only weapon! You…you assured my safety at the risk of the world's safety."

She was heartbroken.

Percy had never seen her looking so wounded and lost. He remembered the days before she'd gone mad. They'd fallen asleep in each other's arms, woken up and had stood side-by-side to fight monsters. They had each other's backs. Even after, he needed to protect her. She meant more to her than she'd ever realize.

Without a further thought, Percy curled an arm around Annabeth.

"What kind of world would I be living in," he whispered gently against his hair, "if you weren't living in it with me?"

That did it.

Two drops of saltwater ran from each of Annabeth's eyes and she let out a tiny, frightened sob before turning and wrapping both of her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder.

"Gods, you're stupid…" Her small fingers gripped the torn material of Percy's shirt and she took a deep breath before pulling away. Though her eyes were puffy and red and her hair was a tangled mess around her face, she still managed to look beautiful when she gave him an exasperated smile. "But I'm glad we made it out. And we're together."

Percy leaned forwards so their foreheads were touching. "You have no idea how proud I am of you, Annabeth. I never actually got to tell you before we…you know…"

Annabeth just laughed and put her hand on his cheek, but it made him wince. That was the first time she actually noticed what kind of shape her boyfriend was in.

With a concerned expression, Annabeth pulled herself away and began scrutinizing Percy's condition, examining cuts on his face and wounds on his arms and neck with a gentle touch. When she took a look at the festering slice above his brow, she let out a little snort and then scowled at him.

"Did you have any nectar or ambrosia while I was out?" she asked.

Percy shrugged, not meeting her eyes.

"You didn't try cleaning any of yours wounds up?"

He still didn't look up.

"You didn't even do so much as wash your face, did you?" Annabeth sighed heavily and stood, reaching for a tall cup on her nightstand. "You're such an _idiot_. I guess that's my job now." Before Percy could defend himself, she pushed a full glass of nectar into his hands. "Drink this, and then take off your clothes."

When that was said, she left to go rummage around in the room for a second. Once more she cursed him for being an idiot before disappearing into the medical supply drawer in the bathroom.

Percy stared into the cup of nectar Annabeth had put in his hands, his mind remaining blank. His arms clung onto the nectar like sticky spaghetti noodles. She had given him orders to drink it, but he didn't feel like he could; there was just no lifting the cup to his aching pale lips. It probably wouldn't even help him, Percy thought, even though he knew it would. He just wanted to be with normal Annabeth now.

Wait...did she tell him to take off his clothes?

"Uh...Annabeth? Why do I need to, uh...take off my clothes?" Percy could barely finish his sentence, a hard lump forming in his throat. The thought of Annabeth seeing him without a shirt or clothes sent a chill down his spine, and he didn't even know why. Perhaps it was the thought of what Athena might do to him if he took off his shirt within ten miles of Annabeth.

The goddess didn't really approve of her daughter dating the son of Poseidon, mostly because of the little spats she and Poseidon had shared before, and if she saw Percy anywhere near the word "clothless" he knew Annabeth's mom would be up a wall. He much preferred the goddess with her feet firmly on the ground and not bloodthirsty.

"You mean just like my shirt, right? Nothing else, right?"

Percy's face became extremely hot, and his hands became clammy; he felt like he was gonna pass out again.

Annabeth came back out of the bathroom holding a couple of sponges, a bowl of water in her arms, and a band-aid box in her mouth, steadily setting them down on the nightstand beside the bed. "Yes, Percy. PLEASE keep your boxers on. Your shirt and jeans, though... Well, they're so shredded it would barely make a difference." She paused walking towards him when her eyes met with his, her eyebrows raising in concern. "Percy? Are you alright?"

"I-uh...um... Percy really couldn't manage any words out, only babbled "uh's" and "um's" left his mouth. No matter how hard he tried, nothing solid could come out. He was at a loss for words more than when they shared their first kiss in St. Helens.

"Mm-hm." Her lips curved into an amused smile, obviously sensing how embarrassed he was taking off his clothes with her around. "Your ears get really red when you're embarrassed. It's cute. I'll turn around if that'll make you feel better, but they need to come off regardless, Perce. You're filthy and injured and obviously can't take care of yourself."

"H-Hey, I'm not embarrassed. I'm just a little...shy. And I _can _take care of myself, you know. I just...needed to know you were okay first."

The last part of his sentence washed right over Annabeth's head as one of her eyebrows raised incredulously. "You're...shy."

He felt his face redden more. "Kind of?"

Annabeth sighed dejectedly and shook her head, sitting on the bed beside Percy. Her face was gaunt and grey, covered in light bruises and healing wounds, but the expression on her face when she looked over at her boyfriend was gentle and sweet.

"...I need to help you," Annabeth said, looking down at her hands, and then back up.

"But why? I just bribed a god to erase part of your memory and you want to _help me_?"

"Because that's what we do, Perce." Taking a shaky breath, she stood again and began walking sorely to the bathroom. She paused before walking all the way in, and then turned her head sideways to look at him. "We help each other. No matter what."

"...As long as we're together."

A ghost of a smile appeared on her lips. Within seconds it turned into a full smirk. "You know, I was serious when I asked you to take your clothes off. You can't seriously be scared of me seeing you in your shorts, are you?"  
"Well, would _you _take off your clothes for _me_?" Percy folded his arms, but as soon as the words came out of his mouth, his face turned even redder and he stuttered. "Gods, that sounded bad. You know what I mean."  
She wasn't taking a no for an answer. Though she said nothing, her expression made it clear that if he didn't obey her, she'd rip them off herself. That would only make things worse...  
Grumbling and wincing at his open wounds, the second Annabeth disappeared into the bathroom, Percy stood again and made a weak attempt to remove his shirt.  
Unfortunately, he discovered within seconds that he couldn't. His arm muscles were way too sore, his injuries began opening up where his skin stretched, and the blood that was dried onto his shirt threatened to rip the first several layers of skin off.  
"Uhh..." Percy made a pained gurgle in his throat as a wound on his side began bleeding again. That was not going to work. He glanced up towards the partially-open bathroom door. "...Annabeth?"  
A rummaging sound came from in there and Annabeth came back out, holding a container of soapy water and two large sponges.

She set them down on the bedside table. "Yeah?"

"I, uh...I can't..." He picked at his shirt had cemented itself to his body. Scarlet colored his cheeks-and not just with blood.

An exasperated, adoring smile stretched across Annabeth's face and she rolled her eyes at him. "Seaweed brain" was an understatement for how Percy felt right that moment. By the way she curved her lips into that brilliant smile, he knew she was wondering how a smart girl like her got stuck with a pile of kelp like Percy. Percy didn't blame her, of course; he wondered how someone as intelligent and as beautiful as her chose someone like him.

"Here Perce..." She reached her hand towards Percy's tattered remains of his shirt, gripping a fist full of the filthy cloth in her fingers. "This might hurt, but you're tough, right?" Annabeth's grey eyes twinkled with a dark amusement, a hint something bad was going to come. He had only seen that look only once before, and that was when he asked her what her plans were for redesigning Olympus. He had never had a more mind numbing 3-hour conversation in his life.

"Wait, uh, Anna-OOW!"

Annabeth ripped the tatters off of Percy's skin in one fellow yank. He nearly fell over backwards since the sudden pain buckled his knees. He'd felt worse, though, and managed to steady himself on Annabeth's shoulder; of course, not without glaring at her. "Ow," he whined, watching all of the wounds on his torso well up with dark blood once more. "You know, that's kind of what I was trying to avoid. Ripping off my skin, and all. It's kind of important to me."

After glancing briefly at the stained ball of fabric for a minute, Annabeth wasted no time in balling up the tattered remains and throwing it in the trash can. Percy almost felt like they should've had a funeral for the poor thing. Here lies Percy Jackson's shirt. I'm sorry you were owned by a very attractive, rambunctious demigod. RIP.

"Hey, at least I got it off. Don't be a baby." Annabeth turned to grab a washcloth from its place on the bedside stand, but paused and glanced back at him over her shoulder with a stern expression. "Jeans, too. That burn is going to need to get tended before it gets too infected, and don't even _think _about arguing."

For someone who just got out of Tartarus, she was still quite the vixen, and definitely not taking a "no" for an answer.

While Annabeth was turned, Percy struggled to take his burnt, torn pants off. There was no way in Hades he'd make Annabeth help him take _those _off (even if the idea was tempting). There were slightly less matted blood, so they ended up being removed easily and were kicked away to the side.

Blood and pus and blisters covered a leg. Some time when they were in Tartarus (it was hard to keep track), they ran into a particularly nasty chimera. It burnt the side of Percy's leg, crisping most the right leg off of his jeans from the knee down. It hurt like mad_, _but it was somewhat easy to ignore when his whole body felt like it had been boiled. Surprisingly, so was the fact that he was standing in front of his girlfriend in nothing but a pair of dirty boxers.

They'd been through too much together to honestly be upset about that. Besides, Percy learned a long time ago to obey Annabeth and to let her be right. After all, most of the time she was.

"Oh gods Percy..." She stared down at his leg in horror, quickly turning to a heartbroken expression. She gripped a sponge in her hands so hard her knuckles were turning white, her body shaking. "...What happened to us down there?"

It took a couple of seconds of trembling hands and hesitation before Percy actually made eye contact. "Bad stuff, Annabeth."

"Is that all you're going to tell me?"

Percy thought for a moment. If he said anything about Tartarus, would all of her memories flood back like they'd never been erased? Would she try scratching off her skin and tearing out her hair again if he told her any more about their experience in Tartarus? Percy couldn't handle it if she went back that way.

"Yes," he said certainly.

For a second, it looked as though Annabeth was going to yell at him. Then it all was expelled in a long sigh and her lips pursed. Again, she pushed the glass of nectar into Percy's hands. "Drink. I'm not going to ask you again."

"Thanks, _Mom_."

Percy didn't have it in him to fight anymore. He hadn't had anything to eat or drink (except for a dribble of Underworld water running from a crack in a cave wall, but it tasted too bad to satisfy any sort of thirst) in roughly a week, and the adrenaline from seeing Annabeth was leaving him fast.

He slowly took a sip of the nectar that was shoved into his hands. The godly drink rushing down his throat felt like blood rushing into a limb that had been asleep for a long time: painful at first, but then it hit his stomach and he realized what flavor had overtaken his taste buds. It was the blue chocolate chip cookies his mom made; they were warm and buttery and fresh from the oven.

How long had it been since he'd seen his mom or Paul? The last thing Percy remembered was hugging his mom goodbye, ready to go back to Camp Half-Blood to see his friends. Thanks to Juno (Hera, whatever), even that had been cut short. After he'd gotten his memory taken away by Juno and gotten it back, he was called away on _another _important mission to save the world. AGAIN.

Though he wasn't gonna say it outloud, Percy actually really missed his mom. With the upcoming war with Gaia and her army...well, he may never see her again. There was always the possibility that they could lose, or he could die fighting. It was a huge possibility, and he'd thought about it every day they were gone.

After everything his mother did for him, after all the love and protection and strength she'd given him to go out and be who he was, Percy may not even see her again.

Tears began stinging his eyes and he blinked them away furiously, forcing himself to close that idea off.

Out of his depressing thoughts, he'd just realized Annabeth gently tending the injuries on his upper chest with a dampened sponge, her soft hands sending a shiver up his spine. The warmth of her hands made Percy feel relaxed, like he wanted to close his eyes and sleep for about a million years, which he didn't doubt he could after being in Tartarus so long.

As Percy watched Annabeth carefully clean the scratches and dirt away from his chest, he noticed a strange look on her face, a trance-like expression that showed a look of vulnerability she rarely let show. Her stormy gray eyes that were always shining strong and independent, always hard to read, were now glossy and red, and her gaze was slightly worried and unfocused.

She looked liked she'd been stripped of her hard outer shell, sharing a moment of raw heart-to-heart connection with Percy, a moment that Percy thought almost felt like...pure love. He didn't know what love really felt like, he was too young to know exactly. His heart, however, felt so warm and full, and something inside him felt like a glorious melody that he was sure even the gods could hear.

Percy felt as if he could explode, and if he did, all the emotions inside of him that he couldn't put into words would be let free and visible in front of her like he wanted them to be. This was a overwhelming feeling he'd never experienced before, and it only happened with Annabeth. He wanted to just be with her; he wanted to touch her, hear her voice, SOMETHING to make sure that this was all real, and he wasn't just going crazy.

"Perce...you're being awfully quiet. Am I hurting you?" Annabeth raised her head slightly and locked eyes with Percy, her eyebrows furrowed in a look of concern. Gods, she looked so beautiful. Her blonde princess hair curling around her cheekbone, her tan skin...

Percy couldn't control himself.

Cupping an injured hand against the soft skin of her neck, he leaned in and kissed Annabeth's lips. She hesitated at first, being startled at the abruptness he'd made that decision, but quickly melted into his touch and began kissing him back. Percy raised up his other hand and brought her face closer to his, curling his fingers on the other side of her neck to deepen the moment.

The last time they'd kissed was when he left her with Rhea Silva and Tiberius. When Percy thought about it, he could hardly believe that was the last time. Never mind his split lip was making it taste like iron; it was long overdue.

The kiss seemed like it lasted forever before Percy broke away. He raised a hand to Annabeth's face and stroked her cheek with the inside of his thumb, resting his forehead against hers in a moment of silence. His body started growing warm, and he could feel his heartbeat bounce so roughly inside his chest he was sure it was going to hop out.

Usually Annabeth was the one to kiss Percy. She was the one to say...those three words.

She expressed herself to him a lot more than he did her. Even when they'd first got together, he couldn't tell Annabeth how he really felt about her. He had such a hard time telling her how he felt, it was as easy as three words in his brain but would just get stuck in his mouth. He was afraid of how fragile their relationship seemed. Even though she'd said those words to him (always in jest, however), he was worried she'd reject him for saying them back, and actually _meaning _it.

"I...I love you, Annabeth." The words came tumbling out of his mouth, but he didn't try to stop them. They'd been stuck there for quite some time, unable to be spoken, but he'd waited long enough.

Annabeth's lips pursed and a flush of red covered her cheeks when Percy spoke. Her silver eyes widened a fraction, but then dropped their gazes down to the floor. "Percy, I..."

"That's okay," he interrupted, feeling a blush appear on his face as well, but his was out of embarrassment. Unwillingly, Percy's hands dropped away from Annabeth's face. "You don't have to say anything right now if you don't want to."

"No, no it's not that." Her words came fast and she fumbled the the sponge, nearly dropping it and splattering water on her shirt. "It's not, I just... You just surprised me."

Percy had flustered her. That almost never happened, Annabeth getting speechless and discomposed like that.

Still a little frazzled, Annabeth gripped the sponge again and began cleaning dirt out of the nasty wound in the side of Percy's torso. "At least your brain is functioning properly," she said with an amused smirk after a long period of silence. "Glad to see the nectar's working."

After that, Percy really had no idea what to say to her. He stood silently, eyeing her a little bit as she continued working at his wounds, putting nectar on the worst ones, scrubbing dirt out of them, wiping up blood from his skin. It hurt like mad, but he kept quiet.

What was going through Annabeth's mind? After the few times she'd told him that she loved him, apparently it really _was _just in jest. Maybe she didn't actually love him back.

_Or, _Percy told himself when that awful thought popped up into his head, _you could be overreacting and she's waiting until you stop being such an idiot to say anything else. _That was quite a possibility, but he still felt a little ill.

While his head was filling with all sorts of unnecessarily panicky thoughts, Annabeth was making an attempt to cover a sizable wound on Percy's side with a square of gauze and coverings and tape it there. All through that he'd had been shifting uncomfortably from foot to foot without realizing it.

"Stand still, will you?" Annabeth asked in an aggravated voice, completely dismissing what had just happened. "I'm trying to get this bandage on."

After mumbling an apology, Percy stopped shifting and just stood, watching her concentrated expression.

The way Annabeth was helping him showed such gentleness and compassion. She'd clean the injury, obviously, but then dab nectar on it so it would numb the spot and start healing immediately. It was an effective method, but just the way she seemed to care so much easily touched Percy's heart and made it so much worse that she hadn't responded to what he told her.

It was hard for him to say anything. Not...awkward, but just difficult to talk to her after his outburst.

"Hey."

Annabeth voice made Percy tilt up his head, and even though it was hard, he looked her right in the eyes. To his surprise, her expression was playful and exasperated, but not in a bad way. It was the kind of exasperated that she would make if Percy did something stupidly cute, or stupid in general.

She slipped one of her hands into his and shook her head.

"You make the cutest face when you're worried. Scrunchy eyebrows, eyes that shine with low intelligence-"

"Hey!"

"-but you know...I'm glad that you're worried. It shows that you genuinely care." Annabeth gestured to herself then Percy. "About us."

"And the world." Percy let out a sigh and forced his thoughts to venture farther than just the two of them in the quiet room. "We still have to fight the Romans and then Gaia's army."

"We may not need to fight the Romans," Annabeth reminded him, turning to dip the sponge in the bowl of water again and then kneel to give attention to the blisters on one of his legs. "We have the Athena Parthenos. It's still in the lower deck."

Parthenos, the statue of Athena...That statue had inadvertently cause them to fall into Tartarus. Percy hated to admit it, but deep down he didn't journey all the way to find Parthenos for Athena. He wanted it to be found for the sake of both of his homes, which was just about to tear itself apart.

It hurt him to feel like he was vivified by Camp Jupiter; it was like a second home to him, but he wouldn't hesitate to fight them if any campers from Camp Half-Blood were hurt from the Romans. Percy hoped it would never come to that. Pathenos was the only thing that could reach peace between the demigods.

"Yeah, well...I highly doubt Octavian will let matters settle with just a statue of your mom. I mean, your mom is pretty great and all but...you know. He's kind of a crazy jerk. He killed my panda."

That made Annabeth laugh a little, and it settled a lot of Percy's tense, uncomfortable feelings.

"So I heard. He's not praetor, though. Reyna has a bit more sense in her." After quickly cleaning off a scratch on her boyfriends' shoulder, she walked around him and checked for any injuries she missed.

"I did my best...it looks a lot better."

"You did a good job, Annabeth. Seriously. My skin doesn't feel like it's on fire anymore."

She smiled again and touched Percy's face gently where she had to seal a gash in his forehead twice with nectar before it would stop bleeding.

"We should probably hold off any more nectar for a while. We don't want you to spontaneously combust." Annabeth began to touch his chest with the back of her hand in several spots, trying to determine his temperature. "...You're heating up."

Percy just stifled a groan of exhaustion. He felt sick, there was no doubt about that. Regardless of how much nectar inside of him, he felt like he was going to either catch on fire and explode or pass out. Whichever came first.

Half of him refused to believe what was happening. They'd sent so long in Tartarus (time passed weirdly in there, so a week felt like an eternity) that it seemed impossible that they could actually be out, in the Argo II, _together. _It felt too good to be true, but he was just too exhausted to question the momentary relief.

Annabeth's cool hands on Percy's skin made his biting headache seem to disappear, but only for a few moments. He didn't know if it was because he was getting seriously sick or because he was just really dehydrated. Whatever the reason, it was making Percy's head spin like a bad merry-go-round.

"...I think I'm gonna put a band-aid or two on you. Despite the nectar, these scratches could still get infected." Annabeth reached out to the nightstand near the bed, but accidently knocked them all onto the wooden floor below. A quiet curse in ancient Greek slipped from her mouth.

"I got it." Percy lurched down to pick them up before she could, but it didn't go as planned.

Suddenly, the room seemed to be spinning as faster than Percy could see, the floors being where the roof usually was. He teetered past the nightstand, bumping clumsily against the black table. The nightstand rocked on it's legs and tipped over, knocking down the lamp, sponges, the cup of nectar, and the bowl of water resting on the table.

Great. Now the band-aids were wet, the lamp was broken, and shimmering godly liquid was slipping down the tiny drain on the floor.

Percy felt his cheeks turn red at his clumsiness. "Oh, sorry, Annabeth, I'll get-_woah._"

Out of the blue, the world slipped out from underneath Percy and he couldn't control his equilibrium. His body began swaying off balance and his arms flying out to keep him from falling.

Annabeth caught his arm, but it didn't stop him from landing heavily on the bed, the room still lurching around him. Percy, being a lot heavier than she, took her with down with, forcing her to fall on top of him. She landed on top of Percy, accidentally elbowing his gut, and they both cried out, one in pain and one in surprise.

"Same old Percy, I guess. Still as uncoordinated as ever..." Annabeth muttered, trying to prop herself up on her elbows as a little spell of dizziness hit her, too. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine." Wincing, Percy peeled open his eyes and saw grey ones directly in front of his own. "Sorry. I got dizzy. Thank goodness the bed was here to catch us, huh?"

Annabeth moved her face away from his, only flashing him a stern glance. "Yeah. _Lucky_. Lucky the floor caught all the nectar and the lamp too, huh?"

"Well...no, but..."

"Now the floor is all wet."

"I said sorry!"

Before Percy and Annabeth could get up from where they were still trying to untangle their dizzy selves, a quick knock sounded from the door. Whoever it was on the other end made no time for a response and barged in.

Leo hopped out of the doorway with a little dance, his fingertips on fire as he did a disco dance. "Guys, guys, guys! You know what time it is? Dinner plus time. DINNER TIME. My favorite time of the day!"

He spun around and moonwalked farther into the room. When he finally turned and saw Percy and Annabeth, his jaw dropped. His giant brown eyes widened to the size of golf balls.

There was never a more awkward moment than the one that followed.

Leo opened his mouth, expression startled and a little embarrassed, but then closed it and cleared his throat and trying to look like he wasn't completely mortified or shocked. "Sorry for interrupting a moment, there, lovebirds, but we have a gang meeting."

"What? OH!" Annabeth looked down at Percy, who was laying underneath her wearing only his dirty Dr. Seuss boxers . A bright shade of red grew across her face and her voice cracked higher several octaves. "Leo! This didn't happen!"

Leo crossed his arms and nodded sarcastically, turning partially towards the door. "I gotcha...Leo didn't see anything, right? Right...Didn't see a _thing_."

"NO! Percy," She hit his chest and gestured towards Leo. "Tell him nothing was going on!"

"Huh? What was going on?" Percy glanced sideways at Leo, a confused expression on his face. "I knocked over the nightstand and water spilled on the floor. Now it's wet."

Annabeth groaned and facepalmed so hard Percy thought she broke her nose.

"I'll let you two, uh...tidy up, then." Leo shuffled out the door, only pausing to give a crazy salute his two friends. "Don't be long! We have things to discuss." His voice was obviously mocking Jason's, and left snickering to himself.

Snorting and huffing, Annabeth managed to shove herself off of Percy and she stumbled upright. Her entire face turned green and she let out a little grunt of pain.

"I'm fine," she insisted to Percy, who caught her favoring the ankle that she had broken. With the nectar and ambrosia she'd consumed, the brake should've healed. Maybe it wasn't as intact as she'd like to show.

When Percy didn't say anything or make any move to get up off the bed, Annabeth twitched a little and then kicked a chunk of the lamp away from her foot. "...We can clean this up after dinner. But, here." She reached to a small stack of clothing on top of her dresser and then handed it to her boyfriend with a sort of pained scowl. "Piper dropped some of your clothes off here so you could change."

"...Thanks," Percy said quietly, forcing himself to sit up and pick at the clothes like they were something gross he was told he had to eat. His attempt to pull on the shirt was half-hearted as well. It got around his neck before Percy seemed to give up and huff in pain, feeling light-headed again.

Annabeth had to tug the clean grey shirt over his bandages, and then helped him up so he could dress the rest of the way. It was only a little embarrassing that Percy needed help dressing, but seeing as how Annabeth was unconscious when _she _changed clothes, he didn't have much to complain about.

"Are you okay enough to go to dinner?" asked Annabeth, putting her hand on Percy's arm. That gesture seemed more to steady herself than comfort him, though. There was a light shade of green across her cheeks and her eyes were unfocused.

"Are _you?"_

There was a second of silence when Annabeth just frowned deeply at him. Her hand found his with a grip that could have amputated it. "I'll be okay if you are."

"I think...I think I'll be fine. The aftereffects of the eternal pit of damnation can dampen one's day." When he received a blank stare, Percy laughed a little. "I'll be fine. It felt like someone massaged me with a cheese grader, but other than that and a little stomach ache, I think I'll survive."

"Well, we haven't eaten in days." It may have been a trick of the light, but a tiny smile touched Annabeth's lips and she looked at him with an expression of adoration. She tugged on his hand a little and took a step towards the door. "Come on; let's go get something to eat. I'm thinking we all have a lot to discuss."

Only wishing that those moments weren't too good to be true, Percy let Annabeth guide him out of the room, and together, they limped down the corridor to meet the rest of their friends.


	3. Chapter 3

_Okay, here's chapter 3. As usual, we don't own anything and all of this is just so amazing that is seems stupid, so don't let any of it fool you._

_And enjoy. _

**oOo**

When they entered the mess hall, the first thing Percy and Annabeth saw were the shimmering, colorful pictures of Camp Half-Blood were up on the wall, as always. The sun was shining bright there, with little figures in orange running around on the grass and sword fighting and riding pegasi: all of the normal activities from Camp Half-Blood.

It was a shame that those pictures were just pictures.

A ways to their right, past all the cozy chairs and soda coolers, was the table where seven people were sitting and waiting.

Leo, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Nico, and Coach Hedge.

Their previously joyous and animated discussion slowly dwindled to silence as Percy and Annabeth limped in, hands clasped tightly and labored breaths puffing in and out of sore lungs. They dragged their feet to a halt and let their aching muscles shake and their stomachs twist in empty pain as they realized that seven pairs of eyes were on them.

Leo looked a little smug, with that wicked glimmer in his eyes. Hazel looked like she might faint with relief, as did Piper, and the other three demigods just looked like they were the ones that had just narrowly avoided death-relief so physical and intense it seemed to wear them out.

Coach Hedge-who was dressed in a gods-awful mustard yellow track suit-did not, however, have the decency that the rest of their friends did. He let out a loud, excited bleat and leapt straight off of his chair.

"You're alive! Your little scrawny butts are ALIVE! I thought you guys were goners when you fell!" Coach Hedge wrapped his arms around Percy's and Annabeth's necks in a supposedly-loving manner, but his sweaty armpits prevented either of them from breathing. "It took five men to hold me back from jumping in to save you guys!"

"Oh gods. Coach Hedge, thank you but-" Percy coughed and turned his head away to get some fresh air. The hug nearly made him collapse, but he remained upright, still holding onto Annabeth's hand for all he was worth.

"Now that you're alive-"

"You can take a shower?!" Annabeth suggested, struggling to get her head out of the crook of his arm

"-we can kick some butt!" Hedge let go of them and leapt around excitedly, ignoring what Annabeth said. "Like, Gaia butt! I could beat 'em all myself but I wanna give you guys the honor, maybe even kill some yourself. I don't like having to do all the work."

It was hard trying to curb the old goat's enthusiasm, but eventually he sat down at his spot at the table again. Only then did Percy and Annabeth realize that everyone was still looking at them. It made for a terribly awkward silence when they carefully lowered themselves into chairs, wincing at healing wounds.

All of a sudden, breaking the silence, Piper slapped Jason's shoulder. "I told you they'd be fine."

"I never said they wouldn't," Jason replied defensively, furrowing his brows and turning his gaze down to his empty plate as if it was very fascinating.

Though it was in good nature, Hazel snorted and rolled her dark eyes. "You were more of a downer than Frank."

"Hey!"

Through the bickering and who-was-more-of-a-downer-than-who, Percy and Annabeth remained silent, with their heads a little lowered as they ordered their dinner in magic dishware. Blue coke makes everything better.

Right before digging into her meal, Annabeth glanced sideways at her boyfriend's choice and blinked incredulously.

"Seriously, Percy?" she said. "You haven't eaten anything in a week and you-seriously?"

Percy looked down at his stack of greasy slices of olive pizza, and then back up at Annabeth.

"Uh...Yeah? Why? Does it have something weird on it?" Percy picked up the slice of pizza with his index finger and his thumb, turning his wrist to examine the slice of greasy goodness. He couldn't see anything wrong with it. Just pizza.

"It's not healthy for you, Percy. It's grease on bread. With that being the only thing on your stomach after not eating like we did... Why don't you eat something healthy?"

Healthy? Percy thought to himself. When in the world did Annabeth start caring about what kind of radioactive junk he was eating anyway? It wasn't entirely bad for him. Now, if said pizza had plutonium and Hydra goo, then Percy would be worried.

"Oh come on," Jason chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Let the dude enjoy his pizza. He just got out of Tartarus for Jupiter's sake."

"Thanks, man." Though he was tired, Percy grinned widely. "I can always count on you to save my hide AND my pizza." He and Jason fist bumped from across the table.

Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Percy and shook her head with a dissuaded smile.

"You guys didn't offer me pizza when I got out of Tartarus..." Nico mumbled, his plate full of an untouched burger and fries. He kept his eyes trained on Percy, which made him uncomfortable. Someone staring at you while you eat is bad enough, but that's nothing compared to when it's a son of Hades unblinking across the table.

Oh yeah. Nico went into Tartarus too.

He didn't have time to ask about Nico's trip into the dark depths of the underworld went; he was already falling in the dark pit himself before they really got any time to talk. Percy could tell, though, that he had been down into the worst parts of Tartarus by just the way he looked. He was even paler (which he didn't think could be humanly possible for him), and his eyes looked spooked. Spooked as in mentally scarred from Hades forever.

What actually happened to Nico down there, he may never tell, but anyone could see that it changed him. Not just scarred him mentally, but he looked more...mature, and older, like his experience from Tartarus forced him into adulthood and took twenty years from his life.

Anyway, Nico was examining Percy like he was an alien that just dropped down from Mars, or like he was expected to combust into flames any second. He didn't know exactly what was Nico's problem, and honestly he didn't want to know.

All he wanted to do is eat his darn pizza.

Leo was the one that saved the day. He looked at his pyramid of food and made this funny laugh noise in the back of his throat, waving his fingers about the plate. "Of course! It's pizza party time. Give me a few dozen slices of chicken pesto. Open sesame! Wait, that's not right...Hocus Pocus! There!"

The magic plate automatically piled itself high.

Frank, who was sitting across from Leo, nodded in appreciation. "Chicken pesto? That sounds pretty good..." He, too, exchanged his dinner for a few huge slices of pizza.

Leo raised his arms up in the air,"Awwwwh yeah, Frank. You, my friend, are a daredevil. Pizza party!" He swayed his arms around in wave motion, earning a playful elbow in the ribs by Piper. "Ow! Meany..."

At that point, Percy, despite everything, was smiling triumphantly at Annabeth. "I'll survive. Surely pizza sounds more appetizing than your salad, hm?" When Annabeth rolled her eyes and scowled slightly, he just leaned over and kissed the side of her head.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right." She mumbled to herself, stabbing her lettuce violently. "Whatever. At least Piper shares my ideas of health."

A little piece of spinach hung aimlessly off the tines of Piper's fork when she raised it up in agreement. "Salad isn't the only thing vegetarians eat, you know."

Though they were all joking about food and the mood seemed to lighten considerably around the table, only one person wasn't at least trying to smile and be included. Nico still sat where he was, gaze dark and grim. It dampened the mood, seeing him be excluded and upset like that, so Percy cleared his sore throat and glanced over at his friend with concern.

"Nico...What's wrong? You look so..."

"Upset," Hazel chimed in. She peered meekly at her brother, who had noticed her brother's actions and had been watching him in concern.

Nico's face was whiter than it ever had been, turning into all shadows as he looked away. "...Sorry for ruining the happy reunion, but I think I'm the only one who seems to be worrying about the war right now."

Leo raised his eyebrow with a frown. "Hey, Percy and Annabeth just narrowly escaped the deepest hole in the earth with their lives. We can talk about the war tomorrow; we're just celebrating them being alive right now."

A tight-lipped expression spread across Nico's face as he met Leo's stare. "None of us will be alive long enough to fight Gaia if we don't figure out how to save Camp Half-Blood from the Romans."

There was a long silence; no one dared to even breathe. They knew it was true, but it was harsh to hear aloud, especially since things were awkward enough.

"Don't worry. Leo will set the ship on course to Camp Half-Blood and we'll get there while we sleep on our fluffy little pillows." Coach Hedge grinned and nodded like it was the greatest idea ever thought up. No one had the heart to argue with Couch Hedge now that he was in such high spirits.

"And after that?" Scowling and sulking, Nico slumped in his chair, tired eyes drooping. "By then, the Romans will have invaded the camp. Probably killing a lot of your friends, Percy. Doesn't that bother you at all?"

Okay, that was way too far. Of course it bothered him, he could never imagine him being okay with his friends being slaughtered by Camp Jupiter, which he considered a second home. Percy wanted to explode and shake that boy senseless, yelling it couldn't be possible that Camp Half-Blood, his FRIENDS, could be taken down without a fight. Deep down, though, he did feel guilty being safely aboard the Argo II while his friends prepared for battle...

Sure he'd been stuck down in Tartarus with no way for him to get out any of that black abyss any earlier, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd wasted so much time in Hades, and his friends wasting even more time trying to find them. They could've been at Camp Half-Blood helping their friends by now.

"Hey, Camp Half-Blood is your home, too," Percy said softly, feeling that squeeze of sorrow inside of his chest again, the one that hadn't left in a long, long while.

"I was never welcome there. I'm not the one worrying about my friend's lives. All my friends are on this ship."

It was true, he was an outcast. Nico was a son of Hades, the offspring of the most bitter of the gods. He was one of those kids who didn't fit in; he was awkward in crowds. Camp Half-Blood was a place for all demigods, Percy had thought that since he first settled down there. He couldn't understand why Nico had such trouble making it his home too, why he had trouble relating to the demigods there. He wasn't at all like Hazel.

It was obviously upsetting Percy, and everyone else could feel that upset radiating off of him. Being the more-or-less leader at the current time, Jason cleared his throat and spoke up in defense of his friend.

"You want a plan, Dead Boy?" he asked the son of Hades, eyes narrowed. "We go to Camp Half-Blood, talk some sense into Reyna, smash Octavian's face in and beat up Gaia with our awesomely combined forces. That's our plan. If that camp is the same camp that trained Percy, then I'm sure they can handle themselves just fine."

A taken aback look flickered across Nico's face when he heard Jason's defensiveness, blinking at him in surprise. "I'm...I'm sorry." He turned his head back to Percy and gave him an apologetic glance. "Look, I didn't mean to sound heartless, but you know I'm telling the truth. We need to get us and this boat and save Camp Half-Blood. If we don't get there in time and prevent the demigods from ripping each other apart, we have no chance fighting Gaia. We won't have the means to."

Outside the Argo II, a wind had sprung up and could be heard whistling quietly on the sides of the great trireme. It rocked a little where it sat in the water next to the island.

From the inside, Nico took a small drink of his water and turned his guilty gaze over at Percy and Annabeth again. "Don't get me wrong, you two; I'm glad you're back. More than glad; I was scared you guys weren't going to make it out, but you did. Now that we have you back we really need to start thinking again. This is only one obstacle in our path to victory."

Frank snorted a little. "You're starting to sound a little bit like a Roman."

"There's nothing wrong with being a Roman," the other demigod said, but he sounded a bit unconvinced.

"Unless you're Octavian..." Frank muttered, "Then again, he's kind of wrong all over..."

"Nothing wrong with being Roman," Percy agreed, "But they have no excuse for blowing up my camp and killing my friends." Taking a massive bite of pizza, grease dripping from his chin and ignoring Annabeth's shudder, Percy continued. "I know where you're coming from, Nico. We do need to start actually planning it."

Hazel, who had been relatively quiet through the whole thing, grinned a little and picked a mushroom from her own thin slice of pizza. "Good thing we have Piper! Her charmspeak is going to be a lifesaver in this."

Piper just smiled tiredly at her friend and let her boyfriend take her hand under the table. "There's only so much charmspeak can do, though."

"Exactly!" Coach Hedge pounded his fist on the table, making the silverware rattle and drinks slosh in their glasses. "We're going to need to arm the ballistae and ready the double-barrel cannons and the Greek fire slingsh-"

"Coach," Annabeth interrupted, and exasperated, annoyed expression on her face. "We're not going to instigate any more warfare than necessary. It would be good if our camp was still in one piece by the end of this."

"Just one shot?"

"No. We need every warrior we can alive to help defeat Gaia and her giants." Ugly blue bags hung from either of her exhausted grey eyes, and the healing scratches all over her face were starting to pucker as nectar worked inside of her.

"So I'll do what I can with my charmspeak first thing." Piper nodded, shoving another forkful of greens into her mouth, and addressed Leo. "Do you have any sort of mega-megaphone I could use?"

"No..." Leo responded, quivering his lip like he was going to cry. "All I have...is a SUPER megaphone. We're doomed." He slammed his head dramatically on the table, fake sobbing on the tablecloth. "DOOMED."

"Oh, stop acting like such a drama queen. I'm being serious."

The son of Hephaestus lifted his head, grinning wickedly. "So am I. Whatever you need, if it can be built I can build it. Mega-megaphone? No prob."

The look Piper was giving him could have killed. "You're really annoying sometimes, Leo."

"You love me."

"Not really."

"Okay, you two." Jason stopped them in the middle, finishing off the last bit of his pizza. "We really need to discuss our plans."

Frank, who up until then had been silent, decided to clear his throat and get more involved in the conversation. "Like, uh...like what? What are your plans? For real."

Jason smirked. "Well, see, I was thinking..."

**oOoOo**

"So it's agreed?" Jason glanced around the table for understanding. "We have things worked out?"

Everyone nodded, but they were obviously tired. After eating more pizza slices than they could count, and being so late into the night, people were getting sleepy.

Annabeth, though, had been thinking the entire time. She slipped her hand into Percy's and sighed. "This isn't going to be easy, guys..."

Before anyone could roll their eyes and say duh at her, she continued.

"I'm serious. This is even bigger than the war with Kronos." Her free hand was shaking, and she clenched it into a fist to stop. "Well...I guess you guys weren't there...The point is, it's going to be harder than fighting the lord of the Titans. And we almost lost that war."

"We can do it! With the power of my extravagant leg muscles and extreme wit, my team of underage demigods will rule the WORLD!" Coach Hedge said enthusiastically, taking a bite of an unsuspecting paper cup on the table. "Er...I mean...save the world, I guess."

Frank nodded, though it wasn't quite as excited, but Hazel was the one to speak, next.

"We're strong," she said, smiling. "With the Romans on our side, surely we will win!"

"If we can get them to listen..." Percy mumbled glumly. Nico's words stung him like a bitter bee sting. He couldn't help but imagine a helpless Reyna with hundreds of angry Romans, their rage being fueled by Octavian's murderous intent. How could the long-lost statue of Athena possible quell the anger of hundreds of years of feuding?

Annabeth continued on her thought, absentmindedly running her thumb across her boyfriend's knuckles as she did. "There are going to be deaths. There's no escaping that; it's a part of war. People die, but the more deaths we can prevent the better."

Coach Hedge let out a saddened bleat. "So wait... No Greek fire slingshot...?"

While the old goat huffed, what Annabeth had said ran through Percy's mind.

Someone's going to die, if not several people.

It's inevitable.

What if it was one of them? Sweet little Hazel with her curly golden hair and her dimples...Piper with her gentle reasoning and charmspeak...Frank and all his panda-bear clumsiness...Nico, Jason, Leo, Coach Hedge. Percy needed all of these people. They were part of his demigod family.

And Annabeth.

What if Annabeth died?

Percy couldn't bear the thought. It made his stomach hurt and eyes sting and head reel. He would never be able to live without her, without her hand in his, without her sarcastic comments and beautiful blond hair and constant smart-aleck-ness.

He almost lost her once in Tartarus...and he had to trade his most prized possession to get her back. Riptide.

If he lost her again, he wouldn't have anything else to offer. She'd just be gone forever, and she was his whole life.

Tears stung Percy's eyes and he blinked vigorously, turning his gaze downwards so no one would have to see.

As if knowing what his friend was feeling, Jason felt the need to set down his pizza and shift uncomfortably in his chair. "You know...if...if you want to...talk about anything..."

Both Annabeth and Percy raised their heads to look up at the son of Jupiter in surprise. For Annabeth it might actually be a chance to learn what really happened down there, but it made Percy feel like throwing up at the thought of repeating.

"I mean..." Jason cleared his throat and shifted in his chair again. "If you want to tell us what happened down there, we're always here for you to talk to."

"You know," Percy stood suddenly, almost knocking his chair backwards. His whole body was shaking and his stomach was churning painfully, "it's about time I went to bed. I'm exhausted."

He turned to leave the mess hall, but Annabeth grabbed his arm.

"Perce," she said quietly, but her boyfriend's sorrowful, hurt expression made her understand. Her gaze swept back to the other seven.

Everyone paused for a couple of minutes, unable to make of Percy's reaction.

"Percy..." Nico leaned forward in his seat and in narrowed his eyes in a perplexed pose. "I understand how bad it is down there. I know that better than anyone here. I've been down in Hades, seen ghosts of fallen demigods, but everything paled in comparison."

"If you know, then why ask? I really don't see the point." Before he could stop himself, Percy became so defensive he nearly sneered at his friend.

"I'm not the best at judging liars, Percy Jackson, but I have the strangest feeling you're not telling us something. Something important." The dark eyes of Nico Di Angelo motioned towards Annabeth. "What do you remember of Tartarus, Annabeth?" He pursed his lips together so hard the corners of his mouth turned white.

With an exaggerated gesture of turning her head to look at Percy, Annabeth made a hmmm sound in the back of her throat and said, "I don't know. Ask Percy."

Percy paused.

He could tell them. They were his friends, after all. They could be trusted, and they deserved to know, but what if speaking spurred Annabeth's...mental instability again? He couldn't risk that.

But they deserved to know.

Fighting a violent internal battle, Percy shifted form foot to foot, chewing on the inside of his cheek and trying to swallow the fearful lump in his throat. "I...I don't know if...if I should..."

A few minutes passed like that, no one saying anything.

Between one second and the next, everyone noticed Hazel's expression turning quickly from curious to horrified.

"Percy..." she whispered. "Your sword is made out of celestial bronze, right?"

The lump in Percy's throat grew bigger. He could barely breathe around it. "...Yeah. Yeah, why?"

"Is it in your pocket?" Judging by the tone of her voice, Hazel already knew the answer.

Beads of nervous sweat tickled the back of Percy's neck. "I...I left it back in Annabeth's room."

"Don't lie to us, Percy." The young daughter of Pluto was visibly shaking. "I can sense precious metals around. And we know Riptide is supposed to return to your pocket. I haven't felt it return the whole night...I don't even feel it on the ship..."

The room was like a panic attack in the form of people. The gears in their heads began to turn, the puzzle pieces coming together. They knew what that meant.

"I had a choice I needed to make," managed Percy through a tight, burning throat and heart pounding in his wrists. "Nothing for something."

It was Nico who seemed to react the worst out of all of the other seven people.

"You...traded Riptide?" he said incredulously. "With who? For what? There's nothing down there but death and monsters lurking in the shadows!"

"Hypnos. A drop of water from the River Lethe."

"Lethe? Wait, you-" Nico looked from Percy to Annabeth and back to Percy, expression growing terrified and enraged. "Oh gods, you didn't."

"Didn't what?" Frank looked uncomfortable.

"That could have wiped her memory completely clean!" Nico gripped at his hair with both hands. "Have you any idea how dangerous that is? You could've wiped her memory CLEAN!" He was seething with anger.

Piper and Jason exchanged silent confused glances.

"...What are you guys talking about? Percy traded Riptide for what?" Jason looked questioningly at Nico, who was now standing up facing Percy.

"What's a Riptide...?" Leo asked, looking around the room like he was trapped in a room full of crazy people.

Hazel immediately sent a glare towards Leo, "It's Percy's sword, dummy."

"Pretty much the sword that Percy used to defeat about every monster in his entire career..." Annabeth mumbled almost bitterly to herself.

It took a couple of seconds, but Leo understood the problem. "Ooh..." he exclaimed loudly, "...Oh..."

Piper turned her head around the room. "I don't understand...You traded Riptide for a drop of water from a Lethe?"

"If I hadn't, I would have lost something more important than a magical weapon, more important than my own life."

"Um, the war?!"

Percy's eyes were glazed with unwanted saltwater when he met Nico's terrified gaze. "If I hadn't done what I did, the world wouldn't be worth fighting for."

Everyone else besides Nico was blubbering with confusion.

"Besides," he said, voice breaking, "I can get another weapon."

"Do you even know how to fight with anything except for a sword?"

Percy didn't answer that. In fact, he just let out a strange noise and turned away, back to the door of the mess hall. "I'm going to bed. See you all in the morning," and with that, he left.

There was a stunned, confused silence for a minute before Annabeth heaved a sigh.

"I'll get him," she said, and turned to leave as well. "Good night, you guys."

"'Night, Annabeth," they all mumbled back, and the daughter of Athena left to go find her boyfriend.

**oOo**

_Maybe it was a little short, but we felt if we went along how we were going to do it, then it would be rambling and dragged on. _

_But it's fine. Hope y'all liked it! _

_Review if you like. Please. With a cherry and a naked Percy on top._


	4. Chapter 4

_This chapter's going to be a little choppy, in the sense of covering a lot of wake/up/go to sleep. Bear with us; it's going to be pretty awesome!_

**oOo**

Annabeth found Percy in his room, pacing, expression both furious and morose. The second he heard her enter, he looked up.

They were in each other's arms before they knew it, holding one another tight.

"Ann-Annabeth...I couldn't do it...I just couldn't leave you that way..."

Annabeth nuzzled her face against his shoulder, heaving a worried, upset sigh into his shirt. "I know, Perce. I would have done the same."

"Would you have?"

"In a heartbeat." She tried smiling, but it was exhausted and half-hearted. "Don't worry about them. Fancy swords aren't the only winners of wars."

All Percy did was shake his head sadly and change the subject. "So are you...staying tonight?"

What he meant, of course, was if Annabeth would be sleeping in his room that night instead of her own.

"I'm only staying if you want me to," she replied gently, knowing the answer before he even said it.

"I always want you with me." A smile touched his lips and he shook his head again, but that time it was in jest. "But I'm thinking we're both in need of showers. Do you want to borrow some of my pajamas?"

"That's an odd question."

"Check in the dresser. I'll get you a towel." He disappeared limping into the bathroom.

The second he came back, Annabeth shook her head and declined the towel in his hands. "You can go first. I'll stay awake."

"You don't you want to go before me? Isn't the rule ladies first?"

"It just so happens that the man stinks more than the lady. Do want to make this whole ship smell like your armpits?"

"I'm a guy. Stinking is what we do best."

"I'm not even going to respond to that..." She rolled her eyes and nudged Percy towards the bathroom. "Just go. I'll just wait here, don't worry."

Percy grumbled in amusement and tucked the towel over his arm, mumbling something about children of Athena's logic while leaving to shower.

While he was in there, all Annabeth did was sit on the edge of the bed and stare off into space, forcing herself not to fall asleep. She was so zoned out that when Percy finally did leave the bathroom, she only noticed when he nudged her.

"Hey," Percy said softly. "You're turn. Are you okay enough to, uh...stand? In there?"

"I'm fine, Perce." Smiling gently a little at him, Annabeth stood and shivered. "I'll be fine."

"...You sure?"

She gave Percy a kiss after grabbing a pair of PJs he'd given her. "Yes, I am. Seriously." With that, Annabeth left her boyfriend staring off into space with furrowed brows as she went into the bathroom.

Under the boiling spray of water, Annabeth washed her hair four separate times and scrubbed every inch of her skin until it was raw and red and would never smell like anything other than green apple body wash.

Though she'd never been more exhausted and sore in her entire life, Annabeth stood there in the shower and braced herself as all of her worries and thoughts came rushing into her brain at once.

It was so hard holding everything in, but despite what she tried showing, she was absolutely terrified. She could never imagine losing any of those people. They've only been a group for a short time but they were already as close as family.

She knew Percy was thinking it, but what if...what if one of them lost the other? If Percy died, Annabeth would... Well, she didn't know what she would do. She was not the kind of girl to fall completely apart, but deep down inside, she knew that would be exactly what would happen if Percy was killed. He was so important to her.

Asides from Percy's death, so much else could go wrong. The Romans could reject the Athena Parthenos. They could have secret weapons and destroy the entire camp, obliterating the possibility of ever defeating Gaia.

Maybe the Romans would agree to join them, but still; defeating the lady of the earth and her army of giants alone would prove to be nearly impossible. People would die. So much could go wrong; it was painful thinking about it.

"Stop it, Annabeth," Annabeth muttered to herself, blinking away hot tears of worry and rinsing her hair for the last time. "This isn't getting you anywhere."

The last of the water dribbled down Annabeth's back as she turned the shower off and stepped out, grabbing two huge towels to wrap herself in. It was oddly comforting, in a sense, to breathe in the scent of clean laundry and soapy steam. It made her feel like she was back home. Of course, she might not ever see the inside of her house again, but no matter.

Swallowing even more worry, Annabeth dried herself off and dressed in the pajamas Percy lent her: a pair of too-big fleece PJ pants and one of his spare Camp Half-Blood shirts that hung almost halfway down her thighs. They smelled like him. Sadness swelled inside of Annabeth's lungs, and she brushed tangles out of her hair with more force than necessary.

As Annabeth stared into the mirror, there was a girl who stared back. The girl had long ringlets of golden-wet hair halfway down her back and scratches all over her face, blue circles under silver eyes. Every time Annabeth frowned, so did the girl. She looked stronger than Annabeth felt, looked older than Annabeth was.

It wasn't fair. It was like the girl in the mirror was taunting her.

Forcing away all of her misgivings, Annabeth snapped the band on the end of her braid, brushed her teeth quickly, and left.

Back in the bedroom, Percy was sound asleep. He was lying crooked on the bed, looking as though he hadn't meant to go to sleep, with the blankets scrunched up around his ankles. Shaggy black hair tickled over his eyes.

"Percy..." Annabeth laughed a little and felt the weight rise a little off of her shoulders. Seeing him like that made her realize that not everything was terrible and hopeless. They were together, after everything. If nothing else mattered, that did, and as long as they had each other, things weren't all lost.

Letting out a little sigh, Annabeth walked over to the bed and stretched out next to Percy, pulling the blankets up to both of their chins. Percy only barely shifted when she did that, letting out a breath that sank him lower in the mattress. Their shoulders brushed.

"Good night, Perce." Annabeth relented to his adorableness and nestled up against him, putting her head on his shoulder and resting her cheek on her hand. "...I love you. Don't forget that, no matter what happens…"

Unfortunately, the night brought no peace for Annabeth.

In her dreams there were unspeakable things, and darkness that ate the whole world.

It tore at her flesh and filled her whole body with terror, both freezing and boiling.

She tried screaming but she was frozen. Everything she thought she saw wasn't there when she looked the second time and she remember nothing, only the pain, the cold and the hot, the darkness, darkness, darkness. It ate through her but left her in one piece, trying to scream but unable to, endlessly consuming until all that was left was the agony.

Annabeth woke with teeth in her skin and fire inside of her body. Her eyes opened but could see nothing past the fear from her dream. A scream could be heard far away. Was it her own? She didn't know.

Things grabbed her from behind and she tried tearing away, lashing out.

The tears falling from her eyes felt like acid, burning tracks of blood down her cheeks.

"Annabeth-" someone called out, but it sounded miles away.

Annabeth yanked herself away from whatever was holding her and she stumbled off of the bed, coughing, colors whirling.

The carpet met her feet.

The light in the room turned on and flooded into her eyes.

The darkness left, just like that, and the screaming that was Annabeth's own abruptly stopped as her legs buckled.

Annabeth fell to her knees, and the second she dropped, it felt as though a baseball bat was swung to hit her stomach.

Foul-tasting bile filled her mouth as Annabeth was sick right there on the floor, arms hugging against her chest.

"Annabeth-" Percy said again, and it was Percy who was wrapping his own arms around her, holding her tightly, rocking her as she wept.

"I'm sorry," Annabeth was saying, coughing and hiccupping, trying to stop the waterfall of tears down her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't-"

He hushed her and just held her tightly. "It's okay, Annabeth. You're okay."

When Percy starts to reach for a rag on the nightstand to clean up the mess, Annabeth stops him.

"Don't. You don't want to clean this up," she says, wiping at her eyes, but another sob ripped from her throat unexpectedly, making her cough even more. "I-I'll-"

Percy hushed her again and hugs her closely. "Don't worry. I'll clean it up. Why don't you go into the bathroom and get yourself some water, okay?"

Annabeth only hesitated for another second before hiccupping once more, nodding her head, and dragging herself into the bathroom.

Stupid Percy always being so...Percy. So nice and unaffected by Annabeth's accidental breakdown.

Behind the closed bathroom door, Annabeth splashed cold water on her face, guzzled about five gallons straight from the tap, and brushed her teeth.

The fear from the dream was still there inside of her, though, and Annabeth shivered. Though no matter how much it hurt her, she couldn't remember any of it for the life of her. The only thing she recalled was the dark, but that could have just been the room when she first opened her eyes.

She didn't usually have nightmares. Mortals are the ones that have "nightmares". Demigod dreams are usually prophetic or recreating past events.

Was that the experience she and Percy had in Tartarus?

Was that what he was protecting her from?

Was that what he was holding up, all on his own, bearing the weight of the week in hell?

Annabeth wanted to be angry at Percy for taking away her memories, but now she was unsure.

When Annabeth lifted her hand to her face, her fingers came back wet. She'd been crying without even knowing it, and when she did realize, it only made her sob harder. For the millionth time in the past 24 hours, she put her face in her hands and cried.

She cried over her memories-but-not-really-memories of Tartarus, over the slim chance they had of convincing the Romans to fight against Gaia, over the slim chance they had against Gaia, over the chance that Percy would die, over everything that had happened to them that summer that seemed to strip Annabeth of everything she was.

There was a timid knock on the door, and when Annabeth didn't answer, Percy came right in. He took one look at her sobbing her eyes out, squeezing the life out of the toothpaste container she was holding-getting minty freshness all over the sink-and he was immediately at her side, letting her fold herself against him.

Percy didn't say anything as he held Annabeth, just ran his fingers through the strands of her blond hair that had escaped from their braid and pressed his lips to the top of her head and stroked his thumb against her cold, goosepimpled skin.

Annabeth let him hold her, let him see the most vulnerable side of her. She hated ever seeming anything less that the strong person she tried to be. She hated ever looking weak. With Percy, though, it didn't matter how weak she was. He'd still love her no matter what, and it was that realization that made her take a deep breath and pull away.

Toothpaste from the tube she was still holding was smeared on the side of Percy's shirt.

Percy just took the tube gently away from her, set it on the counter, and put his arm around her shoulders. "Come on, Annabeth," he said quietly, and guided her back to the bedroom.

In there, he took out two more of his shirts from the dresser, gave one to Annabeth, and switched one out for his own toothpastey one. Annabeth, not caring about anything, just took her shirt—which had gotten puke on it—off right then and there, and slipped the clean one over her bra.

Though Percy was trying not to watch her as she did that, he did notice that one of the wounds on her side had opened up some time during that whole ordeal and was soaking straight through the bandages.

"Come here," he ordered.

Annabeth hated people ordering her, but she didn't have the strength to argue, and dragged herself forwards until she was in front of him.

Percy already had the fresh bandages in his hand, and didn't even ask Annabeth's permission before kneeling down and pushing up the edge of her shirt to see the wound.

"I guess this is sort of a switch," Annabeth said through a hoarse throat, clenching her hands into fists to stop them from shaking.

"Not a switch at all." Percy removed the old, bloody bandage and tossed it into the trash.

"This is what we do. We help each other. You said that just yesterday. Did you already forget?"

"Of course I didn't forget." Annabeth was only offended for a moment before she heaved a sigh and turned her head away so she didn't have to watch her boyfriend clean up all of the thick, dark blood from her stomach. "It's just odd."

The other demigod remained quiet and continued tending to Annabeth's wound until it stopped bleeding, and he put the fresh wrappings on. When it was all better, Percy stood back up and shook his head. "Will you be okay?"

Annabeth thought of her nightmare and of the terrible things she'd seen but not remembered. She was certain that was what Tartarus was like. Could she ever be okay after that?

Percy wrapped one of his hands around hers and brought it up to his mouth.

Yeah, she'll be okay.

Annabeth swallowed and looked at their entwined hands. "Percy, I'm...I'm sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for."

"But seriously, I'm-"

"Annabeth, shut up." Though his voice was stern, Percy's face was soft with adoration. He motioned for her to get back in bed.

What was that, Percy finally wearing the pants? Since when did he have the courage to boss Annabeth around like that?

Annabeth wasn't certain, but it wasn't really that agitating. She did what she was told, hiccupping, and crawled onto the bed again. After turning out the lights again, Percy tucked the covers in around her and sat at the edge of the bed, holding one of Annabeth's hands, staring at the opposite wall. He, too, had purple bags under his eyes, but did not look like he wanted to sleep.

"Percy..." The word was slurred with sleep, even though Annabeth was doing her best to stay awake. Nightmares really wore her out.

Percy looked over at her, and when she tried to talk again, he adjusted the blankets around her chin. "You're okay. Just rest."

"The bed's cold," she insisted, even though it really wasn't.

Only after Percy rolled his eyes did he let go of Annabeth's hand to walk over to the other side and crawl up under the covers, letting her snuggled right up against him.

"I'm sorry," she tried saying, but again, Percy shook his head.

"Go back to sleep, Annabeth. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day."

"Perce..." Annabeth's eyes were already closing. "You weren't..."A yawn interrupted her. "...really asleep after I got out of the shower, were you?"

Percy let out a sigh, but it was not an annoyed one. "No, I wasn't."

"Then you heard me?"

He turned his head to face Annabeth, and even in the dark light of the room, the green of his eyes still twinkled. "Yeah, Annabeth. Yeah, I heard you."

"...Good." Annabeth pressed the side of her face against Percy's chest, feeling the alluring grips of sleep already swallowing her. "'Night, Perce."

Percy only waited a second, getting over his mild surprise, before kissing her forehead and closing his own eyes. "Sweet dreams."

Like that, the two fell asleep, protecting one another from the dreams that no longer threatened them for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Annabeth woke with a start, but it wasn't because she'd had any more nightmares. For a few minutes she didn't move, keeping her eyes closed against Percy's shirt.

Her throat was sore and her eyes were sticky and every part of her hurt, but all of that seemed sort of numbed compared to the growing feeling of dread inside of her.

One less day they had before everything either gets better, or much, much worse.

Licking her dry lips, Annabeth peeled her eyes open and started to sit up, but it woke Percy.

"Are you alright, Annabeth?" were the first words he spoke, mumbled against the blanket. Percy turned his head to blink sleepily up at her, and for a second, all Annabeth wanted to do was lay back down and curl up to him again and sleep for another few days.

Instead of doing that, however, Annabeth pushed the blankets away and swung her legs off of the side of the bed. After a night like she'd had the night before, she felt sleep-deprived and cranky on top of all the leftover nastiness from Tartarus.

"Just peachy," Annabeth told Percy, voice scratchy, and she stood. The little clock on the nightstand said that it was just a few minutes until noon. She cursed quietly. "We slept in... Everyone's probably at lunch right now."

"There's no rush," Percy replied, yawning, and he reached up to feel the healing gash on his forehead. "We actually have an excuse to sleep in a little."

On her feet, Annabeth felt more bitterness and fear swell in her stomach, bringing nausea that almost made her fall. "The world may be ending. We don't have time for excuses."

There was upset in her voice. It choked her tongue and made her words thick, and even if that wasn't obvious enough, her shaking hands would be a dead giveaway.

Of course, Percy saw her edge and sat up, frowning guiltily. "I'm sorry. Annabeth, w—"

"Please don't." Annabeth felt a hot lump grow in her throat and she couldn't look at Percy, because when she did, she remembered the night before when he was so wonderful to her. It was the first night they'd shared together, not on a life-or-death quest or in the stables or anything. He didn't blame her when she had that nightmare and has thrown up on the floor, and still let her curl up against him and fall asleep.

He was _too _wonderful, too carefree and loving, and Annabeth felt guilty for not letting them have a second when they didn't have to worry about anything. She'll always worry, and seeing Percy just trying to please her broke her heart because deep down inside, she knew that it would be a long, long time until she was _truly _happy.

Though she thought she felt it for a second the night before...

"Please," Annabeth whispered again, sat back down on the bed beside him, and put her head in her hands to think. "Just give me a second, Perce."

Percy pursed his lips tightly, trying not to make any noise. He laid on the soft white bed with his arms crossed over his chest, his black hair askew and his night shirt wrinkled up around the stomach, exposing a strip of tan skin. For a while he was motionless, a strange reaction in his eyes as he watched Annabeth sitting there holding her head.

There was no anger in his expression when he'd been shushed; only anxiety and fierce protection. It really made Annabeth feel even worse. If only Percy could be as focused and worried and edgy she was, she'd feel less bad about everything. There was something else in his look, too. Something Annabeth couldn't put her finger on.

No matter, though. She couldn't change anything, and there was no reason being so upset that it wrecks everyone else's moods when there wasn't anything she could do about it.

Taking a deep breath and standing, Annabeth said in a wavering voice, "Never mind. I'm fine. We should be going to lunch and talking to the others." She glanced back at Percy, who was still lying on the bed, and held her hand out to him in a sort of peace offering. "Coming?"

Grateful for Annabeth's supposed recovery, Percy quickly got to his feet and wound his fingers in hers, an unsure grin plastered on his face, but it soon melted into his trademark expression of innocence. It was typical Percy; ridden completely of worry and full of no good mischief, but, as Annabeth noticed, there was something hidden in his expression.

The lighting of the room made Percy's eyes twinkle brightly, and it was hard not to stare into them. One fact about Percy is that his eyes always expressed what he was thinking, no matter how hard he tried to hide it. All the contents inside was free to browse to anyone who dared looked inside, which made it super easy for Annabeth to tell what was on his mind.

That time was no different, though she wasn't sure she really wanted to know.

When Annabeth had been holding her head, trying to think, she locked eyes with him. Only a split moment she saw the look flash across his face when she had done so. It was a strange emotion that Annabeth didn't recognize, or at least, didn't register its importance until now. It was rare for her to even see that look, and he had allowed it to slip.

Inside his eyes, Annabeth thought, she had seen fear.

It was the same kind of fear she had seen on his face when Percy had rushed into the infirmary when they had escaped Tartarus, and it was the same kind of fear he had shown when Nico asked what she remembered of Tartarus.

She was certain now; there was no mistaking it: the way Annabeth was acting reminded Percy of how she had acted in Tartarus, and it was scaring him out of his mind.

When Percy and Annabeth arrived in the mess hall, everyone was already finished with their lunches. Leo and Piper were laughing and punching each other around Jason, who was sitting between them smirking in amusement. Frank was sitting across from those three, holding Hazel's hand with a sheepish, embarrassed grin on his face, listening to her and she talked quietly. Nico was sulking at the corner of the table next to Coach Hedge, who looked like he fell asleep in his chair with bits of a napkin stuck to his lips.

Like the day before, when the other two demigods entered the mess hall/lounge, everyone else fell silent. However, they quickly resumed their normality.

As they sat down, Annabeth cleared her throat a little. "Sorry we slept in. We w-"

"Ha!" Leo made a noise of triumph and punched Jason's arm. "I told you they slept in the same room. You owe me five drachmas." He held up four fingers and shoved it in Jason's face repeatedly. "Five, five, five!"

"I only have denarii..." Jason replied in annoyance, swatting his friend's hand away, but it was in obvious effort not to react to the whole "sleeping in the same room thing".

Piper and Hazel, however, were half-hiding their pink faces and giggling.

"They slept in the same _bed_!" Hazel said to Piper, sounding half-scandalized, half-impressed. "Why didn't Coach catch them?"

"He was too busy eating our plastic cutlery and practicing how to kill things in his cabin." Jason mumbled, pushing away Leo's hands that were trying to grope his face. "I hate having a cabin next to that guy..."

"Those two could get away with murder, and Coach wouldn't notice..."

Just then, Coach Hedge snapped his head up and made an attractive grunting sound with the back of his throat and wiped some napkin from his mouth. "Mmfg… We there yet?"

"No," Jason said. "You can go back to sleep."

Hedge did.

Percy and Annabeth were ignoring that whole thing. They sat quietly and piled their plates as high as they would go with banana-walnut pancakes, even though it was lunchtime. While everyone else continued their conversations, it was noted that their cheery tone was a little _too_ cheery. It masked the uncertain and tense air that had fallen upon the Argo II like a blanket.

Annabeth caught a drip of syrup on her thumb and glanced over at Leo. "So… Where are we today?"

"Flying over the Atlantic." Leo propped his feet up on the table and leaned back, folding his hands behind his head. "E'yup. Captain Leo always knows."

"Well, _duh. _I was asking how far along we are. Meaning how long we have until we get to Camp."

When everyone else heard Annabeth ask that, they went quiet again and shifted uncomfortably in their chairs.

Leo took his feet off of the table and scratched the side of his head. "Well, uh... If Festus keeps up his pace, we should be there...around..."

"Tomorrow morning." Jason picked a piece of lettuce off of his girlfriend's plate and ate it. "Really early tomorrow morning."

"I was getting there..." grumbled the son of Hephaestus.

Annabeth felt her stomach drop into her feet.

Tomorrow?

She wasn't ready.

The moving mural of Camp Half-Blood on the wall of the mess hall looked as normal as ever, but an evil, sickly air began hanging. All of the plans they'd worked out the day before seemed to vanish for a second as fear gripped her chest.

_Stop this, Annabeth,_ she scolded herself, suddenly not wanting to eat any more of her lunch. _Get a grip on yourself. _She couldn't freak out then. She was Annabeth Chase, daughter of the goddess of battle strategy and wisdom. She doesn't "freak out," especially right before a battle.

Gods, _please_ don't let there be a battle. They needed the Romans to trust them to win this war.

Annabeth forced herself to calm down and glanced over at Percy.

He looked as worried as she did, but his concerned expression was not focused on the large picture of Camp Half-Blood on the wall. It was focused on _her_.

"I'm fine," Annabeth snapped at him, though he hadn't said anything and looked wounded when she used that tone of voice. "Sorry," she amended, pressing her palms into her eyes. "I'm just...worried."

"...We all are, Annabeth." Jason looked sympathetic. "We all have friends who are going to be there fighting tomorrow."

Feeling that squeeze in her chest again, Annabeth just palms harder to her face. "_No._ We can't fight. We can't."

Swallowed nervously, Piper said, "There may not be any choice."

"We always have choices." With shaking hands and a hot lump in her throat, Annabeth looked up again and turned her gaze from one demigod to another. "There are always choices. We _can't _fight. Not if we want to win this war."

"War is war," Piper argued back. "People are going to _die_. It's not an 'if'. It's a _fact. _Today might even be the last full day the seven of us spend together as a team."

Ignoring Nico, who was scowling into his cup of orange juice, Annabeth stood suddenly, nearly knocking her chair down. "Don't _say_ that! Don't you _dare _say anything like that. We're all going to...we have to..." As soon as the wave of anger hit her it faded, making her tremble all over. Her heart was pounding violently inside of her and her stomach hurt and she felt freezing cold.

"Annabeth," Percy said quietly, reaching up to touch her arm gently.

That's right. Annabeth Chase never freaks out. She doesn't do that. She's always the realistic one, the one telling the others that people die in war. She doesn't _do that._

Letting out a moan, Annabeth felt the world tip beneath her and she sat down again heavily, shaking like a leaf and feeling that creeping feeling of sickness in her throat. "...I don't feel so well," she whispered.

"You're burning up," Percy told her, feeling of her forehead. "You should go lay back d-"

"No." Annabeth pushed his hand away. She had to do this.

Of course, Percy was unconvinced, but wordlessly pushed a glass of nectar into her hands and waited until she'd had a swallow until speaking again.

"Piper's right," he said, even though he sounded as nervous as everyone looked. "War's nasty business, and this _is_ a war. Like it or not, the Romans aren't going to be very welcome to sitting down and singing campfire songs with us before fighting Gaia's giants."

"...If that is the case, I want to Iris-Message my dad today." Piper glanced over at the fountain Leo had installed in the other end of the mess hall, specifically for Iris-Messaging. "You know...to tell him not to worry, or something."

Everyone nodded, each knowing that the other was thinking about Iris-messaging their loved ones and people who they cared about and who cared about them just as much. Just to assure them that they would be fine, even though they knew there was the possibility of death around every corner.

Though…Piper, Percy and Annabeth were really the only ones who had family in their little group.

"I wish Octavian would just disappear..." Frank mumbled sadly, perching his face on the palm of his hand.

"Frank, don't be down about Octavian," Hazel said with a smile, patting her boyfriend's back comfortingly. "It's Gaia that caused all of this; Octavian's just trying to be loyal to the legion."

"Yeah...Yeah, Gaia caused a lot of this, didn't she?! She's the whole reason for this!"

Everyone snapped their heads at the angry voice which, to everyone's surprise, came from Leo.

He hit his fist on the table, clenching his teeth with anger so hard he could've broke them. "Percy and Annabeth wouldn't have fallen into Tartarus, Frank's grandma wouldn't have gotten mixed in all of this, Piper's dad would have been stolen…" Leo furrowed his brows and hit the table again. "Hazel lost her life and then...so did..." Leo trailed off from his sentence, immediately lowered his head against the table and wrapping his arms around his head like a protective cocoon. "My mom..." He mumbled, his voice starting to shake a little. "All of this because of Gaia...because of _her_..."

The seven demigods became silent, all looking at Leo with sympathy in their eyes. Even Nico, who had been glaring into his orange juice the whole time, looked at him with similar look of sympathy.

Leo had always been the wisecrack of the team, the only one who could actually laugh after bad things happened. Seeing him so heartbroken and angry like that only reminded Annabeth how vulnerable they all were.

There they were, the last hope of the two camps—no, the whole world as they knew it, and they were falling apart at the seams.

At what point in their lives were those emotional scars going to heal? That is to say, if they even make it out alive at all.

Annabeth had been running around on quests to save the world ever since Percy came into her life, and every time she set out on these quests the solution always got just a little harder to reach. She'd been always willing to fight to save her friends, and never had she ever thought of complaining about it.

That time felt different, though. Not because she didn't want to fight for her friends, but because it felt like if she went into the battlefield there was no way they could win. No way that they would come back. No way of saving the world.

It felt like a suicide mission.

The last suicide mission (like this one) that she'd had was the battle with Kronos, when they only won by pure circumstance and luck, and Luke deciding to be a good guy in the end. They wouldn't have won that war without his sacrifice, but there was no way Gaia would realize she was wrong and change her mind.

How could they win again?

She wondered quietly if another sacrifice was needed to win this suicide mission, too. If it meant sacrificing herself to save Percy and all of her other friends, then she'd do it without hesitating. Some part of her knew that all of her other friends thought the exact same thing, but it was no use just thinking about it the whole time.

Caught up in her own muddled, depressing thoughts, Annabeth hadn't realized that people had been trying to talk to her until Percy shook her shoulder gently.

"Annabeth?" he asked, looking even more concerned for her wellbeing. "Did you hear what I said?"

Annabeth shook her head, clearing the cobwebs, and took another shaky sip of nectar. "What did...What did you say?"

"I asked if you wanted to IM Chiron back at Camp with me after we've contacted our families."

Do they know that they found Percy in the first place? Of course they do... Has he talked to him since then, though? Annabeth couldn't remember.

"Well?"

"Um...yeah." Annabeth rubbed at her eyes and tried paying attention, but her mind felt foggy and a headache was brewing in her skull. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Sorry."

Her eyes stung and were blurry from rubbing her eyes; she didn't feel so good with everyone asking her so many questions, even though they hadn't been asking much of her at all. She felt like every little word someone sent at her took a chunk of her soul with it, draining her more and more until she'd just eventually snap and start banging her head against the table or something.

Annabeth craned her tired neck wearily upwards just in time to catch Nico's stare, his olive colored eyes examining her in her state of unguarded emotional territory. There was nothing malicious about his stare, which Annabeth found odd since he'd been cranky all morning, but instead he looked sympathetic, the kind of sympathetic look that your parents give you when you fall on the sidewalk and scrape your knee. Why on earth was he looking at her like that?

Annabeth cocked her head slightly at Nico, giving him a questioning stare, to which he replied with just a half-hearted smile. He wasn't going to tell her over the table, she decided. She would have to talk to him after.

"Hazel," Percy began, his thick voice making Annabeth's headache just a little bit worse, "Didn't you slow down Gaia once before?" He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, a crooked frown forming on his lips. "Do you think that maybe you could, I don't know...slow her down again? Safely?"

Hazel cringed, slowly looking up to meet Percy's gaze. "Percy...I wish I could..." She reached up to her cinnamon brown locks and began to curl a strand of hair around her tiny finger. "But that last time...That last time I don't even think I slowed her down physically. She didn't lose any power; it just took her longer in raising her son again after I brought the cave down, and at the expense of me and my mother."

"Oh..." Percy sighed dejectedly, resting his head roughly on his perched up hand. "I thought we had something to work on…" Percy noticed Hazel's expression start to sadden, quickly turning his frown into an attempted big grin. "Hey, whatever, Hazel. We'll just find another way to kick Gaia's butt."

"And we'll all play our part in it." After nudging his friend in the shoulder, Jason turned back to the rest of the demigods. "But if we're done having lunch here, I think we should let everyone go ahead and Iris message their families."

Everyone else shrugged and mumbled "okay" and they stood, all except Percy, Annabeth and Coach Hedge (who was still passed out).

"Awwwh, shoot! I have no money!" Leo whined, snapping the bands to his overalls with a pout. "Jason still owes me my five drachmas!"

"There are coins at the bottom of the fountain," Hazel pointed out. "As always."

The look the son of Hephaestus shot his friend was indignant and huffy. "Well…okay, but he's not getting away with anything."

"Who do you want to contact?" Hazel asked politely, looking curious.

"My—" In the middle of his sentence, Leo's face abruptly fell and he huffed again, sinking even lower into his seat. "I don't really have any family to contact, do I? Maybe my cabin… See how everything's going, you know?"

Though it was obvious that he was hesitant to even IM anyone anymore, Leo just pled his plate high of gummy bears and began eating them slowly, as though it was his depression food.

"Hey, uh... Maybe you should go first, Piper." Percy shot a quick glance over at Annabeth with that same worried expression, and stood. He offered her hand to her. "Do you want to go up to the deck with me while we wait?"

Only waiting a second before answering, Annabeth took his hand and stood, doing her best to ignore the brief dizziness that struck her. "Yeah, sure." With a sympathetic expression, she peeked over at Piper, who was looking nervous and upset. "Good luck, Piper."

The two girls had always been close. Even though they felt a little distant after Annabeth's return from Tartarus, there was still that unwavering friendship towards one another, and Annabeth knew that it was going to be hard talking to their families. She already dreaded having to talk to her dad, knowing that she might never see him again.

"Come on." With his hand securely around Annabeth's, Percy guided her out of the mess hall, but her gaze would not tear from Piper's until they were out of sight.  
**oOo**

_This chapter was originally over 10,000 words long, so it's cut a little bit. Hope you enjoy it!_


	5. Chapter 5

Up on the deck, the air was cool and humid. Annabeth could feel the thin clouds shift as Festus guided them across the ocean. Though it was still only late July, it felt colder than it should have, or maybe that was just the feeling of impending doom.

Annabeth and Percy leaned against the railing, not talking, only their shoulders brushing together as they stood. Far below them, the Atlantic Ocean glowed bright turquoise under the sun. It looked peaceful and smooth, but there was no doubt several nasty sea monsters waiting just under the surface to crunch up the Argo II like a granola bar the second the ship touches the water. That was why they were staying up in the air, but no one really minded either way.

"Are you scared?"

When Annabeth heard Percy's question, she shot him a startled, incredulous expression and opened her mouth to say something-probably rude or sarcastic-when he shook his head.

"Of talking to your dad, I mean. Are you scared of talking to your dad?"

Oh.

Annabeth squinted up into the sky. "...I don't think 'scared' is the right word. It's just...we fought so much. We've disagreed so much about everything and after restoring that relationship with him, things have been so uncertain and awkward. To admit at all that we might not ever see each other again is just..." She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "I almost don't want to talk to him at all because after all the pain I've caused him, IM'ing him to say goodbye is just _evil_. You know?"

"It wouldn't really be a goodbye, Annabeth, but…" A forlorn expression crossed Percy's face. "It's better than letting them sit there in their rooms worrying about us and what we're doing at that moment."

"Sometimes ignorance is bliss."

Though she was arguing, Annabeth knew where her boyfriend was coming from, and it must have been a complete shocker to hear the words "ignorance is bliss" coming from _her_.

"All I'm saying is that it's better to know that we love them and them to know what we're getting ourselves into than them not knowing that we're risking ourselves and being clueless until we IM them afterwards if we win the war." Tutting sympathetically, Percy tucked a bit of Annabeth's hair behind her ear. "I don't make your decisions. All I'm saying is that our parents deserve to know what's happening."

Festus let out a mechanical bellow from the bow and he turned around briefly to look at them.

"Hey, try not to worry about this whole thing too much, okay?" Percy pressed his lips against the side of Annabeth's head and let out a little sigh, tickling her ear. "There's nothing we can do about it, so don't let it get to you, okay? The only thing we can do is be as prepared as we possibly can and hope for the best."

"I am. _Trust _me..."

Percy hesitated, tensing as the corners of his mouth wrinkled uncomfortably. He shifted foot to foot, looking down over the side of the Argo trying to dodge his girlfriend's glance.

There was no answer for a couple of minutes, and as Annabeth waited for her boyfriend, her insides began itching uncomfortably.

"Percy, you...you trust me, right?" She leaned towards him a little closer, gripping the railing of the Argo hard enough to feel the wood creak under her force. "Right?"

Tiny beads of blood welled where Percy bit his lip, and it wasn't because of the split lip he'd gotten a few days before. "...I trust you, Annabeth. I do. That's how you make a relationship work, right? Through trust?" The wind ruffled his black hair around his face into a tangled mess when he turned his head towards her. Percy's eyebrows were upwards in a worried expression that made his nose wrinkled, and his eyes shone a brilliant green that seemed to intertwine with tiny waves of blue. Just like the ocean.

In other words, he looked extremely handsome. That was probably never going to change in Annabeth's eyes, but she forced herself to stop thinking about that.

"It's just...Annabeth, I can't help but think that you're going through pain and you're not telling me what's going on." He looked like he rather be fighting Kronos in a princess dress than face his girlfriend with his growing suspicions. The lock their eyes held broke as Percy shifted from foot to foot.

Maybe it wasn't his suspicions that were making him feel uncomfortable at all.

Annabeth recalled that scarring look he gave her that morning when she had held her head, trying to make the world stop spinning in a circle of chaos. She couldn't help but think the look he was giving her then was the same one, except the difference that time was he hiding it just a bit better.

"...Do you worry about me?" Annabeth asked, looking instead at the endless blue instead of her companion. "Even though Hypnos took my memories?"

When Percy scoffed, she turned around to look at him and saw fear and pain in those beautiful eyes of his.

"That would be an understatement." His voice cracked. "I'm regretting ever doing that more and more, but Annabeth...I can't...be without you." Though there was a flush of red upon his cheeks, the expression Percy wore was only one of adoration and anxiety and nervousness. "I was selfish. You might have been better off just...maybe..."

Percy suddenly let out a loud, frustrated noise from the back of his throat and shoved his face in his hands, gripping his hair tightly.

"That's a terrible thought," he moaned to himself, sounding so hurt and afraid Annabeth wanted to hold him in her lap and tell him everything was going to be alright. "I can't think that. I'm sorry, Annabeth, I'm so sorry. I've hurt you more than I can bear to watch."

There was little to say to that, so Annabeth did not say anything. She kept her grip on the railing and tried to keep tears from leaking out of her eyes.

"I did what I thought was right," Percy continued, looking like he wanted to fall onto his knees. "I thought the worst Tartarus could do to us was hurt our physical bodies, and when we healed from those wounds we'd be fine, especially if you didn't remember the horrors we saw down there. But I was _wrong, _and I'm sorry. You would have been better dead than go through this."

Right then, Percy _did_ sink down on the deck, arms wrapped around his chest like his heart was in danger of tumbling out, the other demigod just stared. Obviously, she wasn't the only one hurting mentally from their fall.

"Perce..." With a voice hoarse with emotion, Annabeth lowered herself onto the deck, too. "I'll be fine. You know I will. This is just the...the after-effects. You did what you knew was right."

"But it wasn't." His arms tightened. "I care so much about, you, Annabeth. It's killing me seeing you like this. You've fallen so much farther than I thought, and it's all my fault."

All of that really broke Annabeth's heart.

They'd been so strong, so impenetrable.

Something that Percy didn't seem to understand, though, was that walls can be rebuilt. After all, they were together, and that was all that ever mattered.

"Well, I don't...I don't think it's bad to fall." Annabeth's words were still trembling, but she unclenched her hands and gently touched Percy's shoulder. "It's only bad if we don't try to pick ourselves back up."

After a few seconds of them just sitting there, Percy lifted up his head and was actually smiling a little.

"You're starting to sound like your mother," he said, and then he reached up as if he wanted to cup Annabeth's cheek in his hand, but was hesitating.

Percy's expression was a question, and to answer, Annabeth pulled herself closer to him. She put his hands on her face and leaned their foreheads together. Maybe it was to comfort him; maybe it was to comfort herself. Either way, they sat there on the deck together, salty wind humming around them, only wishing they could stay like that for longer.

Sadly, that was impossible.

Not fifteen minutes later, the door they'd exited from opened and Piper dragged herself out.

Annabeth let go and she and Percy stood to face the third demigod, who looked seriously distraught.

"How'd it go?" Annabeth asked quietly, touching her friend's shoulder.

Through red eyes, Piper flicked her gaze from Annabeth to Percy to Annabeth again, and then she sniffled. "He doesn't understand, but he's fine. It went fine." It looked like she was trying really hard to keep herself together, though she kept shaking and hiccupping and swallowing hard.

"...Where's Jason?"

He was expected to be there with his girlfriend, but he wasn't in sight.

Piper tucked her hands in opposite elbows and hunched over, as if freezing cold. "I-I don't know, maybe his...room. I didn't l-look, I just...needed..." Suddenly, tears burst from her eyes and she started crying.

At once, Annabeth's arms were around Piper and she was comforting her as she hiccupped onto her shoulder.

A few minutes passed, and finally the daughter of Aphrodite drew away, wiping at her puffy eyes and running nose. "I'm s-sorry, Annabeth. I just...I don't know h-how we can do this. My d-dad is so naive; he d-doesn't get it...that we m-might never see each other again."

Annabeth just pursed her lips, but said nothing, still patting her friend's back comfortingly.

Of course... Piper's dad was a super-famous, super-handsome movie star that didn't know about the other world his daughter lived in. Ever since his memory got wiped by that potion, he went back to his normal routine and there was no way he'd understand just how serious that whole thing was.

Professor Chase was a little better. He knew about the gods and goddesses and knew how dangerous it was, and though he'd lost Annabeth once, he loved her more than she cared to admit, and it would be hard telling him knowing he'd understand.

"I'm sorry," Piper hiccupped again, making a shooing motion with her hand. "Don't mind me. Why don't you guys just go down and IM your own families? I'll go find Jason."

Silently thanking her, Annabeth nodded. "Why don't you try the armory? He could be checking inventory before we get to Camp." Before she took Percy's hand and left, however, Annabeth hugged her friend once more. "We'll come find you afterwards to share what Chiron has to say, okay?"

"Alright, Annabeth." Piper smiled gratefully through her damp face and gave the other two demigods brief hugs. "Good luck."

With that, they went their own ways, Piper to find Jason, Percy and Annabeth to go back down to the mess hall.

Percy was eerily quiet, walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets and his back hunched over, making him about the same eye-length as Annabeth. His face was a perfect description of dread, obviously over the fact that he hadn't thought of contacting his mom until now and the realization that he hadn't seen her in almost a year.

From the looks of him, the thought of seeing his mom's reaction made him really anxious.

Annabeth knew he was a mama's boy, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. Sally was the kindest lady she had ever met, always thinking about Percy above herself.

Since godly parents don't usually stay, Sally raised Percy alone (Ugly Gabe didn't count), which no doubt made Percy respect her to no end. It wasn't hard to imagine what Poseidon saw in her when they met, and it wasn't hard to imagine how through all the tough obstacles Sally had faced for her son that Percy was the single most important person to her in the world.

Their relationship was so happy; it made Annabeth sigh.

Even though Sally sat at home wondering where her son was, she still had faith in Percy that whatever he was up to, wherever he was, that he was safe. Maybe it was because she never faced herself what horrors a demigod lived through. Annabeth would never truly know, but she had no doubt that her Percy would always come back to her alive.

With a painful realization, Annabeth understood that she would never be able to have that same unwavering faith in Percy that Sally has. It wasn't because she doubted his abilities to defend himself. He defeated the Titan Lord, for the god's sake.

Deep down, she knew that is was the sad truth of a demigod's life that made her faith in him shaky. The whole reality of it all was that is so, so easy for a demigod to die in this world. She could never attach herself so thoroughly to him when she could lose him so easily. Unfortunately, she already was attached. She loved him more than anything.

Sighing heavily, Annabeth put her arm around Percy's waist and they leaned on one another all the way to the mess hall.

Seeing her dad was even harder than Annabeth thought it would be.

The second the Iris-Message screen flickered to view Professor Chase in his study, raising an eyebrow quizzically at the picture, they both began talking at once.

"Annabeth! I haven't hear-"

"Hi, Dad, I'm sorr-"

They both laughed nervously and Annabeth felt her heart flutter nervously inside of her. "Sorry," she said quietly, wringing her hands in her lap. "You go first."

Professor Chase reached up to peel his aviator goggles off his head and ran a hand through his grey-and-blond hair as if at a loss of words. "Well, I don't know what quite to say, Annabeth, I haven't heard from you in weeks."

"Yeah, I-I..." Her throat seem to constrict for a second and she swallowed hard, flicking worried eyes over at her boyfriend, who was standing at a respectable distance for privacy but still support.

"Percy!" Letting out a surprised little laugh, Professor Chase motioned to the other demigod with both hands. "Looks like she finally found you, hasn't she? Took you long enough to resurface. Where were you? You look awful."

"Dad!"

"Sorry, sorry." He didn't look so sorry, but was staring at Percy with an acute fascination. "Is that...a legion tattoo on your arm? I thought you were of Greek lineage, no?"

Percy looked a little uncomfortable at the attention, and rubbed his tattoo with a hand. "It's a big world, Professor."

"And a long story." Even though Annabeth felt nervous and depressed and upset, she still managed to clear her throat and remain mostly calm. "Dad, I...I'm Iris-Messaging you to tell you that I might not be talking to you again for a while. Maybe..." She swallowed hard, twice, and her brows knit. "...ever again?"

To her dad's horrified, confused face, Annabeth spilled everything in a super-condensed version of their quest, from the Romans to the Mark of Athena to the Doors of Death in Tartarus to their saving Camp Half-Blood the next day to the fight with Gaia that might not end so fabulously.

Even though it only took a few minutes, the expression on Professor Chase's face turned from curious to shocked, shocked to concerned, and then concerned to horrified.

There was a long silence after Annabeth finished, until her dad finally was able to speak again.

"...Let me get this straight..." he said, looking shaken and worried. "You flew to Rome, followed the...the Mark of Athena to _Arachne's_ secret underground lair where she was holding a statue that has been missing for thousands of years, and you defeated Arachne and you and Percy fell into _Tartarus?!"_

Having it all be shot back at her like that, Annabeth cringed and swallowed yet again, tucking her arms around her chest. "Yeah, but we're out now. And-"

"And you're going to fight the entire modern Roman legion?!"

"We may not have to fight," she mumbled weakly.

"Before battling the mother of all the gods and titans?!"

"...You're making this sound hopeless, Dad."

Professor Chase heaved an astonished breath and rubbed his eyes with his palms. "I'm sorry, Annabeth, that's just...that's a lot to take in."

"I kn-"

"_Tartarus."_

Annabeth cringed again.

"How did you possibly get out of there?"

Trying to stop herself from shaking, she glanced over at Percy and squeezed his wrist out of view of the IM. "I...I had help."

There was another period of silence, in which they had to feed another drachma into the mist.

Finally, after a while, Professor Chase ran a hand through his hair and leaned back, looking a little lost. "So you're calling me because you might not-"

"Don't remind me!" Annabeth hissed, trying hard not to lose it again. She took several deep breaths and squeezed Percy's wrist harder. "I'm sorry, Dad, I just... I don't need you to remind me how hard it's going to be, but if I don't do this Gaia might rise and there won't be any home to return to. I _have _to do this."

To her surprise, her father nodded.

"I know." The professor suddenly looked years older, eyes sagging sadly as he slid his gaze from his daughter to Percy. "...You take care of her, you hear me?" Professor Chase told him.

Annabeth opened her mouth to insist she could take care of herself but stopped when Percy touched her shoulder.

"We take care of each other, sir," Percy said confidently. "Don't worry."

"Oh, I'll always worry about her." There was no hesitation in Professor Chase's voice, but he sounded resigned and as though he wasn't going to argue any more. He dragged his sad gaze back to his daughter and looked more morose than she'd seen him in years. "I'll never stop worrying, but this is your life. I know we've fallen out before, but never forget that I love you, Annabeth, okay?"

Hot tears stung in Annabeth's eyes and she furiously blinked them away. "Okay, Dad," she whispered through teeth clenched with sorrow. "I...I love you, too."

Standing up, Professor Chase rubbed his five-o'clock shadow with his hand and sighed again. "I should go tell Jia and the boys, but...Annabeth?"

"...Yeah?"

"Try your hardest to come home." Looking as though he couldn't hold in emotion any more, he covered his face and the Iris-Message sputtered, returning to just a stream of salty mist.

Annabeth felt empty.

She wasn't sure what to do after the screen vanished. Her chest felt like a big hollow cave; everything her father said echoed off inside of her, but didn't make any lasting impression. She wanted to be home, which was definitely a first. She'd rather be anywhere but there, stuck on a ship headed towards a war that she could very well not come back from. It made her want to scream.

As Annabeth stood in front of the fountain looking down at the water, her reflection stared back at her with painfully blank eyes. For some reason, she didn't recognize the face peering back at her. It looked so tired, so worn out, so defeated. It looked nothing like it usually did, and it hurt her pride more than anything.

It was understandable, though, right? That could have been the last time she ever saw her dad. Then there was the heavy guilt of not spending more time with her family, since she spent most of her time trying to find Percy when he disappeared. Then, when she did find him, she was a part of the quest that followed, then another thing, and then another thing.

There was always something else, something else that stopped her from being able to control what was going on around her. It was like the world didn't want her to go home.

"...Annabeth?" Percy uncertainly touching her back.

It was only then Annabeth realized she'd been crying. Her face was wet and salty, vision blurred and whole body trembling like a leaf. Only Percy with his arm curved behind her back and her own grip on the edge of the fountain held her up.

For several minutes they stood like that. Annabeth couldn't find the strength to straighten up, or the will to stop the streams flowing down her cheeks. All Percy did was stay close to her and rest his cold hand upon her back, his fingers trembling, too, against her shirt. There was little _to_ do but stay close to her, and she loved him for that.

That wasn't the first time he stayed close to her in her time of need. A very precious memory she had of them together was still fresh as day in her mind, even though they had little to be happy about at that specific moment. It reminded Annabeth of the time before another war; a time when she actually had shreds of hope that she would make it out.

The second Titan War: the one focused around the Empire State Building.

_She and Percy were fighting back to back, and were completely surrounded. As they battled through lines and lines of monsters, Annabeth had turned her head just in time to see Ethan, a child of Nemesis, lunge at Percy with a knife. Percy's back was turned fighting, and even though Annabeth knew he had bathed in the River Styx, she instinctively flung herself in the way of the knife._

_There was little memory of what happened for a minute afterwards; everything was a blur of sounds and colors. Percy's yell...her own piercing scream...Kronos' laughter...the snarls of the vicious monsters that surrounded them..._

_Then there was a searing pain of the poison that flowed into her bloodstream, and she found herself kneeling on the cold pavement, the world lurching around. Her vision finally gave way to the darkness, and she blacked out._

_The next time Annabeth surfaced it was on a long couch on a balcony overlooking Central Park. People were surrounding her, familiar faces blurred by the poison's effect. _

_They all seemed to want to know if she was going to make it, asking her if she was alright and if she was in pain. Of course she was in pain, she wanted to say, but of course she was going to make it, she wasn't going down yet. She tried to speak, tried to assure her friends that she was alright, but her brain kept swaying back and forth, in and out of consciousness. _

_Probably wasn't too assuring of her health as she constantly blacked out and mumbled garbled words._

_She couldn't tell how much time had passed since she had been stabbed. Could've been a month, maybe even a year and she wouldn't have noticed._

_ The next time Annabeth opened her eyes, she actually managed to stay conscious. It hadn't even been an hour, but the Apollo kid was still there, as were several other people. Then Percy was there, and everyone else was gone._

_ His face instantly softened at the sight of her lying on the long couch, all signs of battle melting away and replaced by fear of the unexpected. Percy came towards the couch with light steps, worry visibly filling him like air in a balloon. She could tell he didn't know what to make of her condition._

_He kneeled down beside the side of the couch, eyes a dark grey-green like the sea during a storm._

_Just him being there warmed Annabeth, just seeing him made the pain feel a little duller, although she'd never admit that to his face. _

_His cute little scowl of worry, the flush of red when Annabeth tried deliriously finding his Achilles spot, and his skin felt sticky with sweat against her fingers. Just having him there made everything so much better, just his company, his support, his love-even though that was before they started dating, she could feel it in the way he held her hand and the way he was looking at her and the way his body was curled just a little towards hers as if protecting her from any more monsters._

"Annabeth?"

_Just having him..._

"Annabeth!" Percy gently squeezing Annabeth's forearms forced her back into reality. "Hello? Are you in there...?"

Annabeth shook her head and sniffed, swallowing foul-tasting phlegm, and blinked her watery eyes at her boyfriend.

Percy took one of his hands from her arm to gently touch her wet face. "Gods, it scares me when you do that. You seemed to just...vanish. Completely tuned out of yourself."

"Sorry," she murmured, dazed, and gently placed her hand over Percy's. "I...I got lost."

"Got lost...? You weren't even blinking. You were crying, and then you just...turned to stone. I don't think that's exactly _normal_." Percy turned his girlfriend to look at her square in the eye, which annoyed Annabeth since he had to bend down a bit to get eye-level with her. "What's wrong with you, Annabeth? How can I make you better?"

To Annabeth's dismay, his voice was cracked with guilt and sorrow, and he was looking at her as though she was fragile. She wanted to be annoyed at that, but she couldn't find the strength in her to yell at him. He was such an obtuse, single-minded moron_. _Nothing could _fix _what was happening. There was no _fixing _a war. There was no _fixing _mental scars from being in Tartarus.

That's what was happening, wasn't it? The scars were coming back.

That was what Percy's afraid of: Annabeth losing her sanity like she in the deep darkness of Tartarus. He didn't have another Riptide to trade, all her had was her.

He felt like he was losing that, too.

"...You should Iris-Message your mother." Feeling fright and anger and sorrow and all of those other nasty feelings inside of her, Annabeth swallowed the hot lump in her throat and turned away. "I'm going to be in my room, okay?"

Maybe it wasn't fair for her to long for the alone time right when Percy was going to talk to his mom. He may need Annabeth's company as much as she needed his when she talked to her dad. Even if that was the case, she didn't have any more emotional energy to support the both of them.

Percy began to walk towards her, trying to stutter a sentence out of his mouth, trying to make every excuse under the sun to go with.

"Seaweed Br-Percy," Annabeth began, turning around in mid-step. She lifted her arms in a shooing motion, trying to let a playful smile spread on her lips, but it was more like a painful grimace. "I'll be fine. Go talk to your mom. I need sleep, and with you wrapping around me like the wonderful boyfriend you are isn't going to get me any."

Though she tried her best for a light, playful, "everything's-okay" tone, it failed because her voice broke several times and her face was still covered in tears. She probably looked like death with blonde hair.

He looked completely unconvinced, his eyebrows narrowing at her in a scrutinizing expression and a big frown. "Somehow, I don't think _'I'll be fine_,' is actually the truth. You're just saying that so I don't worry."

Annabeth narrowed her own eyebrows. "No, I'm just saying that so you'll shut up and Iris-Message your mom. Look, all I need is an hour or two of sleep. Just talk to your mom; she deserves to hear from you after all this time." With a quick turn on her heels, she headed back down the hallway towards their room, completely ignoring the protests Percy was stuttering behind her.

She wondered what Sally would have thought if she saw the state Annabeth was in.

Back spending more than just five minutes in her room for the first time in many days, Annabeth tried going through her old notes and diagrams. All of the information just flew right over her head, which is something it _never_ did. She was the child of Athena, for Zeus's sake.

Huffing a sigh, Annabeth flopped down on her bed, curled into a tight ball, and before she even knew how tired she was, she fell asleep.

**JASON'S POV**

"You know, Jason. It really sucks to be an orphan. Like, really sucks. Everyone thinks you're like Orphan Annie or something; always singing about how crappy your life is. I can't sing, and I'm not a ginger." Leo slammed his empty cup on the table, a little drop of grape Kool-Aid resting on his chin that Jason couldn't help but stare at. "The only thing me and the Annie girl have in common is the curly hair!" He huffed and filled the cup with more grape Kool-Aid, chugging it down wildly.

"And that's the worst thing about being an orphan?" Jason rolled his eyes.

The second that everyone except Annabeth, Piper and Percy had left them up on the deck of the ship so they could talk to their families, Leo had been ranting about not having anyone to IM. It was saddening that he didn't have any family to talk to.

Jason didn't mind listening to what Leo had to say, but it was hard for him to pay attention. There was a lot on his mind: the war, the Romans, Gaia, Percy and Annabeth...

The whole "Percy and Annabeth" ordeal was the current big one.

After searching for so long, risking losing a war to stay and search every possible location they could be in, they had finally found them in a small cave. He couldn't forget how they looked when he first saw them: Annabeth lying on the ground covered in wounds, her skin as pale as snow and no sign of life inside her. Percy kneeling over her, not much better off than Annabeth, muttering to himself like a madman.

Jason never expected their condition to be good, but nothing could brace him for how they looked then.

They were alive, but barely. His friends hanging on the only thin thread of life they had left.

It scared him.

He tried to feel relieved to see them safe, tried to think they'd be fine once they got them to the ship and patched them up with nectar and Band-Aids, tried to assure his friends they would make a full recovery. No matter how much he knew it wasn't true, Jason had thought-no, _believed_ that everything would be alright.

Nothing he believed about Percy and Annabeth recovery was true.

Everything was turning sour, and Jason was helpless to do anything about it.

"Hey! Are you even listening to me?" Leo was now on Jason's side of the table, waving his hand in front of Jason's eyes. "Is anyone home? Knock, knock." With his elfish grin, Leo curled up his hand into a fist and bonked Jason's head.

Jason didn't know what was more annoying; the fact Leo hit his head or the fact his head made the hollowest chestnut sound he had ever heard.

"Stop that!" He grumbled, swatting his hand away with a scowl. "I was thinking, Leo."

"Well, don't think too hard, handsome. You might set off the fire detectors with your brain smoke." Leo flopped back down in his chair across from Jason, putting his boots on the table and put one hand under his head with a smug grin, holding the Kool-Aid cup with his other. "I don't like taking unexpected showers when I'm drinking my Kool-Aid."

"When do you _ever _take showers, Leo?" Nico walked soundlessly into across the room, shaking his head at Leo with an amused expression.

He was wearing a dark blue skull shirt and some majorly ripped up jeans, his hair a mop of black. Nico definitely looked a lot better from his trip from Tartarus (and getting locked in that jar), Jason thought. He wouldn't even willingly converse with anyone on his own before they found Percy and Annabeth.

Leo sipped from his giant cup, giving Nico the eye as he drank. "Oh yeah, tough guy? Since when have I allowed your creepy self to come close enough to even smell me? You've been hiding in your little corner while I, the coolest guy on this ship, have been stuffing my face with gummy bears and sugary drinks."

"The only reason I've been hiding in the corner is to escape the Leo stench. I've been able to find a little bit of oxygen there."

"The _Leo Stench_ is the delicious smell of sugar and motor oil." Leo crossed his arms, giving Nico a raised eyebrow. "All the ladies love it."

"Oh yeah. The ladies are just running to get a whiff of that." Nico snatched the cup from Leo and held it away from Leo's reach. "You've had too much sugar for today. I'll take it off your hands." Using his shirt as a napkin, Nico wiped off the lip of the cup, his eyebrows raised. "Maybe _I_ want some Kool-Aid."

"H-Huh...? No! That's mine!"

His smile formed into an evil grin. "Not anymore."

Jason watched them wrestle each other for cup, both of them laughing in good fun as they called each other shocking names and hit each other repeatedly.

It was the strangest friendship he had ever seen.

Nico had been acting fairly dead until Percy and Annabeth had popped up. Jason was able to see that maybe the spooky addition to their little group had a soul after all.

Leo the goofball and Nico the silent, grumpy child of Hades had gotten close over a short period of time, forming a kind of friendship that proved that opposites did truly attract. They would be sarcastic to each other, insulting each other in a way that reminded Jason of what siblings were supposed to do, and mostly have fun messing with the other. Leo would pull a prank on Nico, and Nico would react by appearing out of the shadows of the walls to scare the pants of Leo.

It was refreshing, he thought, to finally see the two "loners" of the group not be so alone. They had fun messing with each other, no matter how serious their insults seemed to be.

Maybe they were so close because of the losses they shared. If Jason remembered right, Nico's mother was taken away from him by godly intervention, just like Leo's. Neither of them had any family to Iris-Message. Well, neither did _he_, but no matter.

Jason was about to break up the fake-fight when the door creaked open. Even Nico and Leo stopped strangling each other to look up.

It was Percy.

His eyes were puffy and expression carefully smoothed over, like he didn't want anyone to know what he was feeling. It was obvious, though.

About a half-hour before, Jason went to the mess hall to see if he could find Percy to ask him something, but he wasn't in there. They figured he was already done so him and Leo sat around, waiting for their friend to return.

Judging by his red eyes and screwed-up expression, Jason would have to guess that Percy had been somewhere crying, but he didn't say anything.

"Hey, guys," Percy said, coughing a little and looking around the room. When he saw it was just the three of them, he asked, "Where's Piper, Hazel and Hedge?"

"Coach Hedge is down in his room preparing for the big fight." Jason felt his face form an involuntary smile. "Of course. The girls are down in the stables, tending to the pegasi that showed up a bit ago. Why?"

"Just wondering." Looking like he'd rather be anywhere else, Percy rubbed his arm and cleared his throat again. "Hey, do you think you could Iris-Message Camp instead of me? I...I need to talk to Annabeth."

That was understandable. He looked awful, with his face contorted and back hunched and eyes red.

"Of course." Standing, Jason turned his back to the other two boys-who were both caught in headlocks from one another-to face the son of Poseidon. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah." Percy said that too quickly, eyes darting around the floor wildly. "Yeah, she went to go take a nap after talking to her dad. I just want to go see if she's okay."

Another feeling of worry gripped Jason. He and Annabeth had been friends back in Camp Half-Blood before they departed on the Argo II. Seeing her so broken kind of hurt him, too, but he couldn't imagine how it affected Percy. They were so close, and knew each other for way longer than her and Jason...

Then there was the issue of her memory of Tartarus being wiped.

Shaking his head empathetically, Jason said, "Of course I'll Message the camp for you. Should I come to find you afterwards to tell what he said?"

"Yeah, that'd be great." Percy glanced tiredly at the cup sitting on the table and his eyes lit up hungrily. "Is that...Kool-Aid?"

"NOOO!" Leo let go of Nico and lunged, but was too late.

Percy picked up the cup and took a swig of it, ignoring both Leo's and Nico's horrified stares. "I'll see you guys later, then." Licking his lips, he walked out of the room with the cup, earning a sad whine from Leo.

"My...Kool-Aid..."

Nico grumbled and slicked back his hair from his face, an agitated look plastered on his pale white face. "_My _Kool-Aid, you mean." He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck sorely. "Ouch."

"Don't be such a w-"

"Hey, if you two are going to be idiots all over the place, could you at least do it in a separate room or something?" Jason took a few steps towards the saltwater fountain and glanced back. "I'm supposed to message Camp Half-Blood and I don't want you two killing each other in the background. It wouldn't be much of a morale booster, if you know what I mean."

Leo, after punching Nico one more time in his arm, stood and looked satisfied. "That's fine, Jason. He knows not to mess with _this_ demigod anymore."

Nico twisted his skull ring around his finger and grumbled to the floor, suppressing a smile.

"Anyways, should we call Hazel and Piper back up? They might be able to hear me from there." The son of Hephaestus took a huge breath and opened his mouth as if to yell down to the two girls two floors below them, but he ended up inhaling a bug and collapsed on the floor, coughing and hacking.

"Piper and Hazel need some girl time." Shaking his head, Jason walked over to the saltwater fountain and rummaged in the cold water for a drachma. "You're a sorry excuse for a demigod, you know that?" His tone was amused, and he flicked his retrieved coin up in the air like he did with his interchangeable gold weapon.

"So they say," murmured Nico, watching his friend rub bug out of his mouth. "Maybe I'll leave the talking to Chiron part to you. You're probably a better speaker than me anyway."

"Yeah," Leo sputtered," While you do that important talking stuff, I need to go swallow a gallon of mouthwash."

"Why? Bug makes your breath smell a whole lot better."

"Ha-ha. You're _really _funny. I'm nearly dying from all the laughter. No, really, I am."

Jason shrugged at Leo, "Might have to agree with Nico on that one. Even if mouthwash _does_ contain more alcohol than wine does."

"Awh, Jason! You're against the Leo breath too?" Leo coughed once more and then stood. "Well, I'm going to drink away my problems while preventing gingivitis. I'll catch you dudes later." Sputtering and spitting, he stumbled out the door muttering about bug legs.

After Nico had left, Jason was already anxious about facing Camp Half-Blood on his own. When he agreed for it, he was thinking it would be just easy enough to tell them that Percy and Annabeth were found and that the Argo II was coming in to support them before (hopefully) the Romans got there first, and then that'd be the end of the call.

He didn't stop to think about how they might react to seeing only Jason and no proof of Percy and Annabeth. They might not want just to take just his word for it; they would want to see them alive and breathing themselves.

It wasn't a problem for their friends to make sure they were alive, Jason thought miserably, but it was a problem to see Percy and Annabeth in such a terrible state. They looked pale and sick, and he couldn't see how the image of Camp Half-Blood's heroes in total defeat could boost morale. If anything, the demigods would be horrified and feeling a little hopeless.

Maybe Jason could just tell them that they were busy recovering, but as able to kick Roman butt as they ever were.

Was that the truth?

Are Annabeth and Percy recovering? Or are they getting worse?

Tossing his thoughts aside, Jason fished the drachma he took from the fountain out of his pocket and glided his thumb over its warm golden surface.

The coin looked so rugged and worn, there was deep scratches digging through its golden surface along with a few unsightly dents. How many hands had this drachma been in? How many wars had this drachma seen, and why on Earth did his thoughts keep trailing back to hopelessness?

With a quick flick of his wrist, the coin flew into the mists of the sprinkling salt water, disappearing immediately upon contact with a flash of rainbow spray, and Jason asked for Camp.

For a minute, only the trickle of the fountain broke the silence of the mess hall. The rainbow hadn't shifted.

"Show me Camp Half-Blood." He repeated.

Jason waited a few more painful heartbeats, and still nothing showing up from the mist of the fountain. Panic bubbled from his stomach and into his throat. He did it wrong, he must've. There was no other reason for the Iris-message not to come through unless he didn't do it right. Where did the coin go, though?

Blood rushed into his head, mind instantly racing to all of the different possibilities of why the message didn't come through. Well, he wasn't of Greek lineage, so maybe Iris didn't accept his call, but the coin was gone which means it _was _accepted, but it didn't go through... Maybe the others failed to mention a special way he had to do it.

The real-time footage of Camp Half-Blood seemed to be stuck like a TV with bad reception on a patch of strawberries, so whatever was wrong with that wasn't any help.

Heart racing with unnecessary panic, Jason stood and made up his mind; he needed to talk to one of the older members of Camp Half-Blood, because something wasn't right.

The Argo II was unusually quiet as Jason walked its halls. The boards creaked softly as it flew, but other than that and his own, things were silent. No wrestling demigods or laughter or anything. He never thought he'd think it, but even the sound of Coach Hedge's kung-Fu movies would be more welcome than this ominous silence.

Was it even a good idea to be searching for Percy like that? He'd said he was going to go talk to Annabeth, but it seemed a little intrusive. Jason really didn't want to walk in on or interrupt anything, but he really doubted they'd be doing anything bad.

To be honest to himself, Annabeth's state was really scaring Jason. They'd gotten to be friends back at Camp Half-Blood when Percy was missing and he knew that something had to be really, really wrong for her to be acting like that. Of course, everyone figured that.

Shaking away muddling thoughts, Jason rounded the corner to head to the second row of cabins when he nearly ran face-first into Percy.

"Oh, sorry-" he started, but trailed off awkwardly when he saw his friend's expression.

Strangely, it wasn't so torn up and broken as before; the look on Percy's face was full of determination and protection.

"Are you okay, man?" The son of Jupiter asked, momentarily forgetting why he was there.

"I'm fine," Percy responded, eyebrows creased into a fierce expression rarely seen on him before. His eyes flicked from the open room door he'd just come out of to his friend standing there, and he shook his head. "Sorry. Anyways, you weren't there long enough to have talked to Camp. What's wrong?"

Quickly, Jason explained the problem. When he was done, he couldn't help but blurt the terrible case that had been on his mind. "Do you think the Romans already got there? I-I can't get through..."

Percy turned his gaze down to the floor, tapping his foot in thought. "You can't get through?"

Jason simply nodded. "Yeah...there was nothing." There was a pause, and he sucked in a deep breath. "Do you think...maybe there isn't a Camp Half-Blood _to_ Iris-Message?"

"No. The message would still have gone through." Percy swept his overgrown hair away from his eyes contemplatively. "It wouldn't have shown a pleasant sight, but it would have still gone through. The only reason Iris wouldn't have put you through is that either Fleecy was unavailable or, for some reason, Mr. D blocked messaging."

_Who was Fleecy?_ thought Jason curiously, but decided not to ask that and focus on the other possibility. "Why would Mr. D have blocked messaging?"

"I don't know." The fierceness of the other demigod's face melted a little and Percy rubbed at his eyes. "My guess is that the Romans _did_ get there and Mr. D didn't want any distractions, or something crazy like that."

"That doesn't make any sense... Even if it did, we're still several hours away."

"I know." Letting out a distracted sigh, Percy glanced again through the open door behind him.

Curiously, Jason did the same. Of course, it was Annabeth's room. She was sprawled out on her bed, hair a tangled fan across the pillows, bruised face scrunched and she slept. Both arms were curled tightly around a pillow as if it was a person. She looked so vulnerable and..._not_ Annabeth.

"I know," Percy whispered, as if reading Jason's thoughts. His strong expression was completely gone by then, replaced with the usual concern. "I'm so worried about her. I try not to, because I know she hates it, but what am I supposed to do?" He dragged his lost gaze to look at the son of Jupiter. "She's my whole world, but like this... I don't know how I can help her. I don't know what to do. I want to reliable and strong. I want to protect her, even if she says she doesn't need protecting. How can I, though? I can't protect her from herself."

For a minute, Jason just stood there, staring at the ground. "...I think the most you can do is be there for her."

"What if it had happened to Piper? What would you have done?"

The thought scared him, but he took a few seconds before answering. "I don't know. Piper and Annabeth are two very different girls. Having that experience would probably do different things to one than it would the other."

A confused expression flitted across Percy's face. "What do you mean?"

"Annabeth's fatal flaw is hubris, right?"

He looked ever more confused. "Well...yeah. Deadly pride. Thinking she can do better than anyone else."

"She has such a certain view of the world, and an experience like Tartarus warped that view." Shaking his head again, Jason stuck his hands in his pockets. "I'm just saying that when she's so used to being king of the pond-no offense intended-this has to be especially hard on her being so dependent and vulnerable."

Instead of understanding, Percy looked insulted. "You think I don't know that? I _know_ h-"

"Okay, okay! Just listen. Pride _is _her fatal flaw, but it's also who she is."

He rubbed his arm and stared at the ground, brows still furrowed.

"All I'm saying is that no matter what happens, Annabeth will always be Annabeth. Constantly being coddled and taken care of is sweet, but it really doesn't seem like the thing to do if you want her to be her normal self."

There was a long pause.

Jason suddenly felt really guilty, and so he shrugged his shoulders uncomfortably. "Look, dude. I don't know her as well as you do, and I don't know if I ever will. I wasn't down there in Tartarus with you two, so I'm in no position to be telling you what's best for her. All I'm saying is that even though Tartarus changed her, she's still Annabeth."

The silence that followed lasted longer than before. Percy stood there, motionless, looking at the ground with his arms crossed and face contorted in thought.

After a second, he finally rubbed his eyes and spoke. "Thanks. And don't worry about not being able to contact the camp...Even if the Romans came, they won't go down without a fight."

"Hopefully." Jason sighed. "Anyways, I'm going to find the others. They disappeared down to the stables a while ago and I'm afraid Leo and Nico are off killing each other or something. I'll let you know if anything happens, okay?"

A grateful expression flit across Percy's face and he took a single step backwards into Annabeth's room. "Thanks, man. Good luck."

"You, too." With that, Jason left his friend to go off in search of the other demigods.

**PERCY'S POV**

Percy woke in a cold sweat. His heart was pounding unevenly and he snapped his head side to side, looking around the room in a panic. The little clock on the bedside table read 4:18AM, but other than its glowing green light, the room was black. It was weird for him waking up out of sight of Annabeth, but the second he realized where he was, he knew that something was wrong.

Even though his head was still heavy from being suddenly woken up, Percy tossed the covers off and swung his bandaged legs over the side of the bed. Something was wrong, definitely. It made his skin crawl with goosebumps and the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

Without even bothering to put on anything over his boxers, he stood and took a quick, limping step towards the door. Before he could take another, though, a dull thudding sound came from the hallway outside.

"Percy!" said a panicked voice from behind his door, accompanied with frantic knocking. "Wake up!"

Percy took no time in throwing the door open, instinctively reaching for his pocket before remembering that Riptide was no longer there. His heart sped up even more. "What?! What's wrong?"

"Chiron just IM'ed." Breaths were coming fast from Jason in quick puffs, and his eyes were wide in alarm.

Inside of his chest, Percy's heart did a backflip and more goosebumps prickled on his arms. "And?"

"We ran out of time. The Romans have already started the invasion."


	6. Chapter 6

_This chapter is going to be very long, so go to the bathroom and get a snack, because the goddesses of writing are IN DA HOUSE._

**oOo**

"Wait, _what?!"_ Percy's mouth popped open in surprise and he stared at Jason in shock.

Not thirty seconds before, the son of Zeus had come pounding on his door and said the Romans had already reached Camp Half-Blood. It was only four in the morning, and Percy was still in nothing but a pair of boxers, but even though some crazy things had been happening recently, he had a hard time believing his friend.

Jason had terrible bed-head and wasn't wearing a shirt, either, but he looked more awake than the other demigod, with wide eyes and hands twitching with worry. "I woke to an Iris-Message from Chiron. He said that the Romans snuck into camp around midnight and set something on fire behind the Big House, and when everyone rushed over to put that out they started another fire in the forest before retreating back to wherever they set up camp. No one can fight in the dark, but all night the counselors and senior campers have been awake working on putting out the fires."

That snapped Percy out of it.

"_They set my camp on fire?!_" His voice boomed with such anger it scared himself. Percy couldn't help it; that Camp was his first home, and now the people he had called friends were burning it down.

All he was doing was sitting there on a ship, nice and safe.

Thinking about it made his veins fill with boiling anger, and he could feel they poison swell to his eyes.

"I've told you before, Percy. Romans think the best defense is offense. They're weakening the camp before striking at sunrise." Running his fingers through his bed-head, Jason sighed heavily. "At least they haven't hurt anyone. Yet. They're pretty good to last an attack like that..."

Heaving a big sigh, Percy clenched his fists and closed his eyes, trying not to explode in his friend's face. His home was still safe. They hadn't fallen yet, but there was no telling how long they could last attack after attack while putting out the fires the Romans set. They couldn't last much longer. The Argo II needed to be precise in what they were going to do if they were going to stop the camps from killing each other.

"Right...So everything is a mess down there. What's going on everywhere else?" Percy asked while walking back into his room to rummage for some clothes. "I'm still trying to wake up a little. Everything's fine onboard? Annabeth's not-?"

"Annabeth's fine_,_ Percy, and so is Camp-so far. We should get there right at sunrise, a few hours after we thought. There's time to stop the Romans."

"Is anyone else awake?"

"We are _now_."

Piper and Hazel, rubbing their eyes, shuffled down the hallways towards their friends. Piper, who was in her Cherokee eagles pajamas, shook messy brown hair from her eyes and scowl a little at her boyfriend.

"What's all the commotion, Jason?" she asked, crossing her arms and glancing from him to Percy, who had stopped halfway through putting a shirt on. "We were trying to sleep."

Though he looked a little tired saying it over and over, Jason repeated what happened.

Hazel made a noise in the back of her throat. "Why would they set some things on fire and leave? Octavian isn't the type to be satisfied with something like that."

"They aren't stopping there. Chiron said they set up their own makeshift camp a few miles aw-"

"Sneak up on them when they're sleeping and show them who's boss, then! Greeks don't think very assertively, do they?"

"You don't understand," Percy said, finishing dressing and pushing out of his room past the other three. "We think the best defense is just _defense_, and attacking people while they're sleeping isn't right. The best things they can do right now are to wait and prepare themselves."

Jason flashed Percy an offended glance. "War isn't about being fair, it's about victory. A fair fight is a fight you could lose, and that's how war goes. Although...sneaking into camp while everyone is sleeping and defenseless..." He scratched the back of his neck and shook his head, disgust flashing across his face. "Seems like something Octavian would do..."

"Percy's right." Shaking her head and blinking away the last bits of sleep, Piper continued, "Anyways, we should really wake the others."

"I'll get Frank and Nico," Hazel offered and left in the direction of Frank's cabin.

"I guess I'll get Coach. Wish me luck." Laughing a little half-hearted laugh, Jason went off, eyes trained on the ground, lost in thought.

Of course, it was Percy's job to wake Annabeth up.

The night before, it was a little hard peeling himself away from her, thinking that if she had another nightmare he wouldn't be there to comfort her. What Jason said was right, though. He had to stop clinging to her, even though he was worried. She'd get better that way.

When he got there, Percy knocked quietly on Annabeth's room door. "Annabeth? You up?"

There was no answer, of course. She was still probably dead to the world, after waking up around nine the night before and staying awake trying to go over the plan several times before she passed out near one in the morning.

Swallowing a little, Percy turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Annabeth was still tucked snugly in her bed where he'd left her, eyes closed and face peaceful as she slept. It didn't seem that she was having nightmares, so that was good.

"Hey, Annabeth." Percy walked over to her and gently shook her shoulder. It was so hard waking her up; she was so beautiful when she slept, and she really did need the rest. "Come on, Annabeth, you need to get up now."

Annabeth let out a little snort from her nose and rolled over onto her stomach.

Man, he _really _didn't like waking her. He wanted to lie down next to her and play with her hair and wait until she woke up on her own.

"Rise and shine, Annabeth," repeated Percy softly, sitting on the edge of her bed and shaking her shoulder again. "We got some news from Camp Half-Blood."

Suddenly, her head popped up and she flopped under her covers like a fish from water. "Camp...Half..." she mumbled, twitching a little in her sleep.

"Seriously, Annabeth. Wake up." Once more Percy shook her, and finally, she peeled her eyes open and groaned.

He couldn't help but grin at her reaction, feeling a little lighter that it was a new day with new possibilities, and they could get to the camp before the Romans killed anyone. "That was quite attractive. You sound like a zombie crawling out of a grave or something."

"Someone's in a good mood this morning," Annabeth mumbled, sitting up stiffly. "Get out of my room so I can change."

"B-"

"I _said _g-" Her word cut off suddenly. "...Wait, what time is it even?" She raised her hand to halt Percy, and after squinting at the clock on her bedside table, she made a noise of indignation and frowned at her boyfriend. "It's not even five in the morning. You'd better have a pretty good explanation for this, Perce."

Strangely, Annabeth didn't sound angry. Before, she wouldn't have even allowed him in her room without making a big deal about it. Letting him live after waking her up before five in the morning was out of the question. Right then, she just seemed a little miffed, but okay that he was sitting on her bed in her room when she was in her pajamas.

"I keep trying to tell you," Percy said patiently, "Chiron contacted Jason. The Romans-"

"The Romans are already there? We're too late?" Annabeth's grey eyes widened and she suddenly looked panicked, which was exactly what Percy _didn't_ want.

"If you'd let me speak, I'll tell you." Shaking his head in amusement, he continued, "They got there, tried burning some stuff down, but left for the night. They'll be back at sunrise, and with hope, we'll beat them there. We've got a good chance now."

"A good chance for stopping them before they kill anyone, yeah, but we didn't stop them burning half the forest down," said Jason, taking a step into the room.

"Half the forest?" Annabeth looked like she'd just been seriously insulted.

"And they tried to burn the Big House, too," added Piper, who appeared in the room next to Jason. "It would be harder to get away with that, though, since Chiron was there."

"I couldn't imagine Mr. D caring enough to get off his fat butt and doing anything about it...Maybe the smell of burning demigods interrupted his poker game..." Percy tucked his arms over one another and frowned at the floor. He half-expected grape vines to come out of nowhere and strangle him, but nothing happened. "Chiron, though..."

Jason shrugged, "Whatever the reason, he helped, and probably saved a lot of lives in the process." Giving Percy a crooked smile, he patted him on the back. "Don't worry, I'm not a big a fan of Bacchus either."

"Piper!" Hazel's voice erupted from the deck, she quickly ran into Annabeth's room with Nico at her side. "We heard the news! The Romans actually attacked?"

Nico frowned and shoved his hands in his coat pockets (though what he was doing with a coat on when he just woke up, no one knew). "What's the big deal? We knew they were going to attack anyway. We expected this to happen, remember?"

"We were kind of hoping to get there before they did, though..."

"Well, they didn't hurt anyone, did they?"

"Not as far as I'm concerned. Except the tree spirits and stuff."

Percy scratched his chin with worry at all the others talking. "I hope Juniper is okay... Grover would be devastated if something happened to her."

Annabeth, who was just sitting there (still in her pajamas under the covers) looking from one person to the next, didn't say anything right up until Frank and Leo started to walk into the room.

"Hey, guys, maybe w-" Frank started, but Annabeth interrupted.

"Okay, what is it, Let's All Have a Meeting in Annabeth's Room While She's Still in her Pajamas Day?" she said suddenly, making a frantic shooing motion and kicking at Percy until he stood up. "Everyone out! The mess hall is for important meetings, not my room. Out, out, out."

As he left, Percy couldn't help but feel a little happy. Sure, it was awful that the forest was set on fire and the Big House had almost been burned, too, but no one was in harm's way, and they wouldn't be for a few more hours. The seven demigods had enough time to get there and help, and convince the Romans they weren't their enemies.

As well as having a good sporting chance at victory, Percy was also glad to see Annabeth somewhat okay. She wasn't a complete mess as she had been the day before, and she was even feeling good enough to shoo them out of her room with her usual firmness.

"Hey Leo, why don't you go up and tell Festus to crank the speed a little and prepare for a landing soon?" Jason suggested to his friend next to him, also seeming a little hopeful.

Leo, who hadn't said anything, stuck out his chest and gave a ridiculous salute, though he just looked like a child in his blue striped pajamas. "Aye-aye, Admiral Grace. I'm on it." Making strange hooting sounds, he dashed off, bare feet slapping noisily on the floor.

There was a moment of quiet when everyone just stood there in front of Annabeth's closed room door, staring after the son of Hephaestus. Unfortunately, their silence was interrupted when there came a sound like a garbled war cry.

Suddenly, Coach Hedge burst through the group, brandishing his baseball bat, rolls of fat that had been squeezed into too-tight pajamas jiggling around. "WHERE ARE THE MONSTERS?! Back, _back! _I'll kill them! I'll kill them ALL!" He yelled some more and waved around his bat in the monster-free corridor. "Where are you, nasty rascals? SHOW YOURSELVES."

"Coach Hedge," pleaded Piper, wincing behind an attractively tangled curtain of hair. "Please stop yelling. There aren't any monsters."

"Cowards!" cried the Coach, ignoring Piper. "Come back here and fight!"

"Coach, there aren't any monsters." Jason ducked as the baseball bat swung over his head, and he managed to catch it as it swung the other way. "Put your bat down. It's too early in the morning for this."

"Bah!" Hedge puffed his cheeks and waggled his bat at Jason. "It's too early in the morning to even be _awake_. The only reason to wake me from my glorious beauty sleep is to beg me to save you from an army of soul-devouring monsters."

Nico smiled in disdain, his eyebrows raised so high Percy thought they might fly off his face. "What is _wrong _with that goat?"

"Goat-_man," _Percy corrected.

Hazel rolled her pretty caramel eyes. "No soul-devouring monsters today, thank the gods. Jason will explain everything in the mess hall once Annabeth is done getting dressed..."

Personally, Percy found it amusing how his girlfriend insisted on getting dressed when the rest of them were fine lounging around in their pajamas—or as fine as they'll ever be watching Coach Hedge dance around in his terrifyingly snug outfit. Whatever made Annabeth feel more like herself, though.

All of the other demigods seemed impatient. They paced a little in the hallways before Jason suggested they go up to the lounge without Annabeth, and everyone else agreed, knowing they'd only start the meeting part of breakfast once their last member arrived.

When Piper, Frank, Hazel, Nico, Jason, Percy and Coach Hedge got to the mess hall, they immediately made themselves comfortable on the armchairs and stuffed donuts in their faces while staring at the wall hopefully. Of course, the wall was where the real-time footage mural of Camp Half-Blood was, but it was no help. For the past twenty-four hours, it had been stuck on a close-up of a few strawberry plants. It was terribly boring, but they didn't have to stare for long.

After a few minutes, Leo walked back in and announced everything was set up, and then the last member entered. Dressed neatly in jeans and an orange camp T-shirt, Annabeth walked in and plopped down in a chair next to Percy. She wound her fingers with his and picked apart an apple fritter as Jason began repeating exactly what had happened.

Those who hadn't heard the complete version looked shocked. Their facial expressions were obviously upset, but when Jason finally ended his little speech with, "...but we'll most likely get to Camp before the Romans return, so we have a good chance that we can still convince them to join us," everyone's moods perked up.

"This is awesome!" Frank said excitedly, so distracted that he let a drip of cherry from his turnover drip onto his PJ pants. "It's win-win!"

"There's no guarantee, though; remember that," Jason pointed out reluctantly. "Chiron said he only _thought_ they'd be back to earlier than sunrise."

"Don't be such a Debbie-downer, Jason!" Leo said as he happily downed the last of his fourth sprinkled donut. "The sun is warm and we have a boat-load of attractive demigods. We've got this! Our plan is triple secured and with a ship like this baby, there's only smooth sailing ahead!"

"His name isn't Debbie..." Hazel muttered, puzzled, glancing around the table to see if anyone else caught that, but her confusion was ignored.

Only after giving his friend a quick look, Jason cleared his throat and said, "Erm...At any rate, we should be at Camp within a few hours. Leo? Can we have a status report on time?"

Leo saluted again. "Festus says we're just a few hundred miles from the coast of Long Island, and traveling at the speed we are, we should be there in about two hours...sir!"

"Two hours?" said Percy, suddenly starting to feel a little stressed. "Shouldn't we be...preparing ourselves, or something?"

"Yeah, probably," the son of Hephaestus said happily. "Buuut...Nobody got time for that! Besides, if we prepare, Cough Hedge is going to want to join in, and I don't want that mental image in my head."

"He's intimidated by me," whispered Hedge loudly into Percy's ear, spitting in the process. "He doesn't like being only the second-coolest cat on this boat."

"Hey, now-" Leo started, but was interrupted.

"Okay, okay. We can argue about who's a cat later," Annabeth said, a little harshly. "Right now, we really do need to prepare. If we really do have a chance..." Her words trailed off and her eyes sort of glazed over as she stared with seemingly great intent at her donut.

_Oh Gods,_ thought Percy, ready to put his arms around her and stop another meltdown. Thank the gods, he didn't have to, because a few seconds later Annabeth cleared her throat and came back into focus.

"Sorry, I was just..." She shook her head. "Anyways, we need to get started."

"Annabeth's right," supported Jason, nodding his head with too much agreement, as though he was making an effort to let Annabeth feel better. "Frank, you and Hazel go down to the sickbay and storage room and make sure we have enough supplies just in case anything goes wrong. Piper-you, Annabeth and I will go over the plans just to see if there's anything that needs revising. Leo, you should triple-check that everything's ready for a landing, and make sure Festus knows what's going on. We don't need an angry dragon head firing at the Romans."

"He wouldn't do that," argued Leo, but left after Frank and Hazel did.

"And Percy," Jason pointed to the son of Poseidon. "You go down to the weapons closet next to the storage room and find yourself something that'll do just in case we have to fight. After that, do what you see fit to get ready. Oh, and take Nico with you just to make sure there's enough for everyone to have at least two extra weapons."

Just as Percy was nodding, Coach Hedge swallowed the last bit of paper plate he was munching on and bleated indignantly. "What about me?"

"Coach." A very serious expression of importance snapped onto Jason's face and he held Coach's gaze. "We need you as battle-ready as possible, so why don't you practice killing as well as possible in your room. You never know what could sneak behind and attack you." To add to the intense effect, Jason raised his fist in the air and gave a mighty battle chant. "Coach Hedge, Coach Hedge, Coach Hedge!"

"Aye, aye, Jason Grace! I shall win this war, and you amateur dudes and dudettes just sit back and watch!" Hedge's eyes glazed over with the vigor and leapt up right away, singing some sort of battle song along the way. "Huzzah! Hurrah! DEATH!"

"That was nice," Piper glowed at her boyfriend, giving him a nudge with her shoulder, "but he's going to hurt himself. Remember when he knocked himself out and we couldn't find him for three hours?"

"Didn't we find him in the storage room behind a stack of boxers?" Nico wondered aloud, scratching his chin.

"It's _okay_. He'll be fine. Besides, if he knocks himself out, it'll be a lot quieter."

"Percy! Come on, not funny. Let's stop joking around and get to work." Though her voice sounded a little unsure and cautious, Annabeth forced herself to let go of Percy's hand and shift in her chair, half-eaten fritter abandoned on the arm of it. She cleared her throat and looked around at all of her friends. "We know the Romans are on the verge of attacking Half-Blood. We know that they plan on attacking at dawn. We know they have more bodies, but we have the advantage of knowing the area and having more weapons and knowledge of their attack."

"It sounds so simple," Nico grumbled, crossing his arms above his chest with a scowl. "That's not how the Romans work. Maybe it's a trap and they want us to _think _they're attacking at dawn...then, they'll slaughter all of the Greeks in one fell swoop."

With pursed lips, Piper drew her attention at Nico, a scowl deep enough to match his on her face. "That's gruesome. Don't you think Camp Half-Blood can see through something as simple as that? It sounds like you don't think they don't have a chance."

"I'm being realistic. This is _war_. If you don't think it, then sit on the Argo II and watch everyone else fight; there won't be a world if we lose anyway."

"Guys, stop." Jason, looking mildly annoyed, grabbed another donut and made it clear he wanted everyone to hear what he had to say, and waited for everyone to stop bickering before continuing. "I hope you aren't forgetting that I've grown up with the legion. I know their military styles. Tell me, would Camp Half-Blood ever try an infiltrate..._anything_ in the dark?"

Percy looked seriously confused and shot a quick questioning glance at Annabeth. "Well...no."

"Why not?"

Although he looked like he didn't appreciate being treated like a kid, Percy said, "First off, our approach is almost never 'infiltration,' but if it was, we'd have to know the territory first. It would be..." Suddenly, he knew where Jason was going and felt really stupid. "No one wants to lead an army of a couple hundred demigods in a territory they don't completely know in the pitch black. The Romans would be suicidal if they tried that at Camp Half-Blood, because we'd have the upper hand in every aspect of it if they come before the sun rises!"

Jason's voice trailed off into a growl-like sound, his electric blue eyes flashing a warning. "Not suicidal. We're not trying to kill any of the Romans, remember? No, we need to put them into an area of surrender where they're so disadvantaged they have no other option. If we bring the fight into Camp Half-Blood, a place where they've never fought before, we _might _give them enough of that disadvantage for them to stop the fight. Hopefully without anyone getting killed."

With a big scoff, Nico rolled his olive colored eyes at Jason. "_Might_? You're basing your whole plan on the chance they _might_ surrender?"

"No. They _will_ surrender." The son of Jupiter shrugged. "We have a shape-shifter, charmspeak, an army of angry Greek demigods, a-"

"-and a problem with overzealous pep-talks. We really need to get to work." Annabeth stood again, and turned to Percy when he stood with her. There was a spark in her eyes he couldn't quite understand, just on the surface. She looked anxious and strained, like she hadn't slept the night before and but was just hitting the crash after drinking a gallon of coffee.

"Annab-" Percy started, but was cut off when she put her arms around his neck for a brief hug.

"I'm trying," she said quietly into his ear. "I am."

"I know." Only pausing to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, Percy let go and grinned. "Before we know it, we'll be back home and everything will be like it was."

Annabeth smiled, too, as if the word "home" made her feel even better. "Jason, Piper and I are going to go over the battle plans. You and Nico go down to the armory and find you a new weapon. After you guys have found something, train or warm-up, Gods know how rusty you might be after being in Hell for so long." She reached her hand and brushed Percy's hair out of his eyes "See you soon, Perce."

With a happy wink to her and a _come on_ nod to Nico, Percy left his girlfriend with Piper and Jason to get ready for their arrival.

Time flew faster than Percy wanted. Once he and Nico were done sorting what few weapons they had, they practiced sword fighting together. Though he was fairly focused on getting used to his new sword, his mind was busy running a million miles an hour.

Will anyone get hurt? Will the Romans already be there? Have they hurt anyone yet? Even though she seemed a lot better than she did the day before, was Annabeth really okay? Will she be okay when they get to Camp? Will everything in general be okay? How will everyone react seeing him for the first time in nearly a year?

He was so preoccupied, by the time Percy actually stopped to breathe and think about getting something to drink, Leo was bursting into the room unannounced, bouncing on his heels and tapping his fingers together anxiously.

"We're going to reach Camp in precisely twenty minutes!" he reported. "The others wanted me to check in and see if you're ready."

"As we'll ever be," sighed Percy. He wiped his forehead and slid the new sword in its scabbard awkwardly; it was a little too long and heavy for his liking, but worked like any other sword and would have to do.

Nico's gloomy expression suddenly turned light-hearted as he looked up at Leo, a playful smirk on his face. "Oh yeah, we're ready. If ready you mean by somewhat decent, of course. Percy is still a little rusty. He moves like a bloated buffalo-

"Hey!"

"-but he's as ready as he'll ever be. I think he'll live if he ever faces a Roman."

"I already _said _I was ready," grumbled Percy. He peeled his shirt from his chest, where it was sticking with sweat, and sighed for the hundredth time that day. "I have to go take a shower, but I'll be up on deck in a few minutes."

"In your armor. Don't forget the armor." Pointing a finger-gun at his friend and making a clicking sound, Leo moonwalked out of the room and vanished.

Nico shook his head after the son of Hephaestus left. "Why is he so...?"

"Obnoxious? I've been wondering the same thing since I met him."

They two demigods exchanged amused glances and smiles, but Percy's soon turned into a small frown.

"I hope Annabeth will be okay," Percy said to himself, looking at the ground distractedly. "She seems better this morning, but still... I never know."

Just as fast as Percy's smile turned into a frown, Nico's glance turned stormy and unkind. "Why do you constantly worry about her in every waking moment? What exactly is the use of constantly wondering she's okay? She's a demigod, and she's always going to be in danger, but there is nothing you could possibly do to change that. You of all people should know that she can take care of herself."

"You saw her yesterday," Percy answered sourly. "You saw what happened, how she acted. If she's in the middle of fighting someone and just snaps like that, she could get killed. I would never forgive myself if that happened. She's...she's my whole life." Suddenly, his face started burning and he shook his head in embarrassment.

With a long pause, Nico sighed and crossed his arms. "Sorry if I'm being insensitive, Percy, but if you don't let her heal by herself...she'll never be strong enough to take care of herself again."

His heart fell all the way to his feet. Nico had voiced Jason's advice almost word for word, and the fact that he did made Percy realize that if more than one person had the same opinion, then it must be true. He didn't want it to be true. He wanted to be with her all the way through. But was that the best for her in the long run? Was he being selfish?

The sour taste of his inner turmoil made Percy screw up his face and turn away from his friend. "...Never mind. I'm going to go take a shower."

"Percy, wait-"

Leaving Nico standing alone and looking a little upset, Percy exited the room to clean himself up before they arrived at Camp.

All clean and strapped into his armor, Percy made his way up onto the deck as the Argo II descended onto the water for the final minutes of their journey home. The slow descent made Percy's stomach rise up into his throat, and the anticipation of being so close to Camp made his palms clammy.

It was all so surreal, knowing in less than half an hour he was going to be home after being gone for so long...

Would everything be the same as he left it? Clarisse always strong and picking fights, and Chris who was always by her side trying to calm her down when she got upset, then Conner and Travis making pranks and stealing candy bars from the camp store whenever they could... Then there was Grover, his best friend in the world, who loved cheese enchiladas and chewing on furniture. The bonfires and sing-alongs and fireworks on the beach and sneaking out with Annabeth to watch a meteor shower on the docks of the canoe lake...

Would he ever have that again?

_Nope,_ said a little voice in the back of Percy's head, and he resisted the urge to stop right there and shovel out his own brains with a plastic spoon. When did he become so realistic? That was supposed to be Annabeth's job...

Huffing and fidgeting uncomfortably in his armor, Percy made it to the deck just as their ship touched down onto the water. Annabeth, Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo, and Nico were already there in their own armor, pacing around nervously.

When they met the Long Island Sound, different sails began unfurling and furling to fit the wind and the oars now sliced through the water like knives. Everything around them seemed to sense the growing sense of doom that clung to the Argo II as they journeyed. The moon, dipping closer and closer to the horizon was covered by a veil of clouds and the water was eerily silent as they glided through. It was even difficult to see anything ahead of them through the dark morning fog, despite Festus's creepy glowing eyes.

When Percy walked up next to Annabeth, who was standing at the railing, she just barely glanced at him.

His first instinct was to grab her hand that was precariously swaying at her sides, to grip it as tight as he could before the horrible sense of impending doom darkened his courage. If he just held her hand, he was sure that everything would become hopeful again.

Percy couldn't bring himself to, though. Something stopped him and froze his whole body, head stuck turned partially towards his girlfriend, hand only partially outstretched. It hurt more than he thought it would.

"Perce," whispered Annabeth suddenly, snapping Percy out of it. Her face was white and her eyes were wide, frantically searching through the fog for _something. _"Do you...do you hear that?"

Swallowing nervously, Percy turned his head towards the fog and straining his ears and eyes. At first, he couldn't hear anything. A few seconds passed and then there was a noise...so quiet he could have been imagining it.

Frantically, Percy and Annabeth began motioning to the others.

"Shut up and come listen to this!" insisted Annabeth, practically dragging Piper up to the bow of the ship.

When they heard her urgency, even Leo left his spot behind the controls and stood with the others as they held their breath and strained to hear. There it was. It grew louder as they sailed further.

It was the sound that they all dreaded hearing. Angered shouting like thunder rolling, cheers that sounded kind of like a battle cry, but it was almost too faint to hear-but they _could,_ and no one was imagining it.

Even Leo, who was almost too busy fidgeting to hear, knew what the noise meant.

They were almost to Camp Half-Blood, and by the sound of it, the Romans had beat them to it.

No one said anything for a minute, soaking that in.

"I don't think they've met in combat yet..." Nico muttered, his own olive eyes widened with the terrible shouting that surrounded them. He leaned in closer over the bow, resting his hands on the side to keep steady and closed his eyes. It looked like he was trying to focus on something hidden in the fog, trying to tune in on what was taking place below. "That is, no one's died yet."

"If we're near..." Jason swallowed and cleared his throat, turning to the son of Mars. "You should get going."

Though he looked slightly panicked, Frank straightened up and nodded bravely. "I'm on it. Don't worry." With that, he turned into a bat and flew off.

A little whimper escaped Hazel's throat, but she said nothing as she stared after her boyfriend.

"Leo?" Jason turned to his other friend.

"Got it!" Leo leapt up and practically flew back to the controls, where he began twisting levels and playing ear-splitting Skrillex from his soundboard.

Everyone else waited at the bow in silence.

The mist hung low to the Long Island Sound, clinging to skin and muting the sounds of battle. Even as the moon sank closer and closer to the horizon and the other side of the sky got lighter, no one felt warmed by the coming day. The chill would not be shaken off, nor would the growing sense of dread.

The silence lasted too long for Percy, but not near long enough. Before he could fully take in that their journey across the Atlantic Ocean was coming to an end, Leo pressed a button and the air split.

From the expanse of the sky, vibrating deep into the wood of the Argo II and rattling bones, came the sound of a battle horn being blown. For a split-second, even the hearts of the seven demigods seemed to stop. Their skin turned sticky with nervous sweat under their armor, though there was a chill in the air.

From their spot on the deck of the great trireme, Percy couldn't see anything except for Festus's shiny dragon head bobbing with the movement of his ship. It seemed like they were still in the sky, flying through a great, thick cloud, but it was just mist on the Long Island Sound.

Hazel, who was standing on the other side of Percy, wrung her hands nervously. "I hope Frank's okay..."

"He's fine," said Annabeth gently, putting her arm around the other girl's shoulders. She, too, was in armor, but her helmet was off and tucked under her arm and her blond hair could have been a darker gold from the wetness in the air, but it was hard to tell in the dim light.

Percy worried about her, but he didn't say or do anything.

"Land-ho!" shouted Leo from his spot behind the ship's controls, and suddenly, through the mist that shrouded the Sound, the beach of Camp Half-Blood materialized, and, like everyone expected, the legion was already there. They were there in their purple shirts and armor and so were the Greek campers and they clashed in a mass of confused yelling and metal on metal and a smell of rage and fright hung in the air.

Most demigods faltered a little and let out a yell when they saw the Argo II dock itself carefully at the beach. The huge metal dragon head opened its mouth and bellowed a mechanical shriek that reverberated off of the armor of the fighters, causing people to leap back.

A shape, barely visible on the other side of the throng of demigods, came into view. It was Frank the Elephant herding everyone down closer towards the beach.

The battle horn sounded again, and the gangplank began lowering onto the beach, and the eight figures began descending, trying to cover up insane nervousness and tension.

People who'd been fighting seemed to condense in the open space between the pavilion and canoe lake, getting a good look at the trireme that had docked on the shore. Weapons were lowered a fraction as people stared.

Within seconds, everyone all around cleared their heads and began realizing what exactly was going on. Some of the Greeks shouted Leo's name—because of his connection to the Argo II—and also Percy's name, because it had been many months since they'd last seen him.

Though the people from Camp Half-Blood seemed to arouse a little excitement amongst themselves, the legionnaires were less than happy to see the ship. They began cursing in Latin and gripping their weapons.

A single voice, recognizable and shrill, suddenly cut the air.

"Romans, abandon formation and fall in for the ship!" Octavian screamed, hoisting his golden javelininto the air. "_Leave none of the traitors alive!"_

Shouts of anger and agreement rose from the crowd—estimated around three hundred if the Greeks were counted as well—and people with purple plumes on their helmets began surging forwards. However, before they could make it more than ten feet, another voice cut them off.

"STOP."

The charmspeak hit the crowd like a bullet.

The few hundred people, bloody and furious, stiffened. Even the others that had come from the Argo II seemed to be momentarily paralyzed by the power of charmspeak.

Piper held Leo's specially modified mega-megaphone in her shaking fingers as she stepped onto the sand. Being at the lowest point of Camp, everyone—whether in the fields or the forest or on the top of Half-Blood Hill—could see her.

"Please," Piper swallowed, "sheath your weapons."

The sound of metal sword sliding into scabbards lasted a few seconds as most everyone obeyed, removing arrows from the strings of bows and lowering javelin points.

Jason stepped up to Piper's side, followed by Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Hazel, and then Nico. Even Coach Hedge stepped out with them, clutching his baseball bat, looking as crazy as a kid in a candy shop.

"HA."

From the throng of armor-clad teenagers, Octavian stumbled forward and out, completely livid. His plumed helmet was crooked and had a dent in its side, like someone hit him with their sword hilt, and there was a small gash on his arm. He otherwise looked unharmed, and was all but spitting fire.

"Do you really think your charmspeak can stop us? There's no excuse—NO EXCUSE—"

"Octavian, shut up."

He closed his mouth and looked at the daughter of Aphrodite with a startled, but enraged expression.

"Now go sit over there," Pointing, Piper ordered the demigod to a clear space at the base of the dining pavilion. "You're in a time-out, since you can't learn to be quiet when other people are speaking. You should have learned that when you were five."

Several people—despite wounds and tension—laughed.

"You can't just—!" Octavian tried.

"Go. Now."

He went, obviously struggling against the power of the charmspeak, but before Piper could say anything else, Reyna materialized. Frighteningly, she looked like she was born to wear her armor and carried about an aura that alone could start a fight.

She stepped up in front of the groups, and another stillness washed over everyone. "Piper McLean. I guess it's admirable how you managed to temporarily stop my soldiers dead on their feet in the middle of a battle, but you don't realize it's for a lost cause. Your friend Annabeth should know that, certainly."

Though it wasn't planned for her to say at all, rage boiled up inside of Piper, so hot and intense it spilled over.

"You think," she stepped towards Reyna, "that you can just march into _my_ camp, try to set fire to _my_ cabins, invade _my_ forest, stomp on _my_ strawberry plants, try to kill _my_ friends—Well, you're wrong, Reyna." Her hand closed around the hilt of Katoptris. "And you're going to pay."

Encouraged shouts ricocheted from the Greeks and without warning, several of them charged back at the Romans. It was probably mainly children of Ares, but they looked riled enough to start a war on their own.

"Piper!" yelled Percy, who looked furious. "You're just getting them riled up again! We're trying to _make _peace—not end it. Give me that." He snatched the mega-megaphone from his friend and put it to his lips. "Stop! Everyone, please, stop!"

Though his words held no charmspeak, it did hold familiarity. Greeks all around halted their swords mid-strike, and confusion made everyone tilt their heads and look around.

Percy's name filled the mouths of many of the campers. Excited, surprised. Connor and Travis Stoll, who were perched on the roof of the Hermes cabin smeared in war paint, holding jars of green fire, whooped and pumped their fists.

"Greeks," Percy licked his chapped lips nervously, "please sheath your weapons, or…or drop them or whatever. And…and step to the side. Yes, I'm glad to be back too, Travis, now please put your shirt back on."

With complete bewilderment, the legionnaires of Camp Jupiter watched as the other camp members obeyed. Most of the fighters wearing orange shirts under their breastplates stuck their swords back in their scabbards, flicked rude hand gestures at their enemies, and scooted away to form a separate cluster.

Percy was receiving many odd looks like, _You're no leader—just a teenage boy! You don't even have charmspeak, but they're obeying you so well, and during a battle!_

There was a long moment when everyone just stared at him, some incredulity, some anger, and some interest. Quickly, Percy's eyes flit over the crowd in a vain search for Chiron, but his old mentor was nowhere in sight, so he spoke.

"We don't have to do this, you know." Heart thrumming nervously in his throat, Percy took another step and stared out over all the heads of the people clad in metal, in orange and purple. "We don't have to fight."

Reyna took off her helmet and her long, black hair, sticky from sweat, tumbled down her shoulders. "Save your breath. You and your friends may not be used to it, but we Romans have this thing called honor. Vengeance. Maybe you're too soft-hearted for this kind of thing, but no one who saw what happened can deny that this bloodshed is your own fault."

They could hear a few disbelieving murmurs from Camp Half-Blood.

"The spear has been thrown," Reyna continued, eyes full of resentment. "You started what cannot be stopped. You fired at unarmed citizens and my warriors want revenge."

"Reyna." Jason took the mega-megaphone from Percy and addressed his old friend. "Gaea's minions—eidolon spirits—were possessing three of our crew members, including myself, and were responsible for firing at your people. Leo isn't the one we need to blame, but Reyna, can't you see? Gaea's working us apart, driving an immovable wedge between our two camps, because she knows that the only way she can be defeated is by our union. Together, we're the only force strong enough to stop her, but apart, we'll all be responsible for the destruction of our world."

It seemed as though even the trees grew silent to listen to Jason. Every soul—every creature in the woods turned their attention on the boy standing on the beach. He had his head high and his friends behind him.

"It's been just a few weeks since we left," Jason said. "Well, kicked out, more like. Since then, we've seen things unimaginable, been places unspeakable, done things impossible. In fact, just two weeks ago today, Annabeth here accomplished what hadn't been accomplished in a thousand lifetimes."

When that was said, Annabeth's expression grew guarded at the memory, and Percy slipped his hand around hers.

"She followed the Mark of Athena."

A couple "Oooh"s floated out of the crowd.

"She went where no one else could millennia before her and found the Athena Parthenos."

That got everyone talking. Most words were upset and leery. Jason briefly glanced back at Annabeth, as if to silently ask if she was going to kick his butt later for mentioning it, but she just continued scowling.

"It's in the hold of the ship if you don't believe me."

"Do not toy with us, Jason Grace," the praetor of Camp Jupiter spat. "That statue has been missing for thousands of years. It is to never be found. _Gods_ have tried retrieving it—"

"You can go check if you'd like." The smile on Jason's face was one of defiance and smugness.

"It's a trap!" Octavian, from his spot by the pavilion, stood. "Don't go in there, Reyna!"

"Be quiet," she ordered. "I'm not that stupid."

"Could have fooled us!" shouted a voice from somewhere amongst the orange.

"You haven't tasted the full fury of the legion, _Greco _scum." Snarling, Reyna lunged as if to attack the crowd of campers. Just like that, the throng erupted again and before anyone could say anything, Reyna and Octavian disappeared into it. It almost looked like they were _dragged_ in. People shouted and whooped and it looked like a writhing mass of skin and bronze and armor.

Both Leo and Nico had to grab the back of Coach Hedge's jacket in order to stop him from joining in. Panic rose in all of the seven demigod's throats and they were momentarily blinded by all the bodies and the fright. Piper's charmspeak hadn't worked, nor did Percy and Jason's reasoning.

As suddenly as the angry legionnaires and campers clashed, a single scream filled the air and everyone wavered as a few different yells came shortly after the scream.

A terrible shriek sounded from the middle of the fight, and the mass of people seemed to ripple, stumbling away from an area near the dining pavilion in a rough circle.

"Oh, gods..." Jason mumbled, but he looked more exasperated than scared. "Come on, guys."

The separate group that had just arrived nervously edged forwards into the mass of people. When they got to the cleared circle, Percy felt bile rise in his throat, and he automatically reached for Annabeth's hand, but it was Nico beside him and not Annabeth. Nico shot him a look, snatched his hand back, and trained his eyes on the center of the circle.

The first thing that Percy saw was Reyna. She was kneeling down on the ground, helmet propped up next to her, but she was staring motionless at something lying on the ground.

"_I didn't mean to_," wailed a demigod in a tattered, blood-stained orange shirt. She must have been new, because Percy didn't recognize her. She looked devastated and guilty, grabbing her head in her hands and looking like she was having convulsions. "I'm sorry, I'm _sorry..."_

Some people in purple-plumed helmets lunged towards her, shuddering in rage, but they were held back. No one seemed to want to raise their weapons. Most gazes were trained on the ground in front of Reyna.

Percy, shivering and feeling a thick dread swelling into his throat, edged around the circle until he could see what everyone was staring at.

There, lying at Reyna's feet, was a small crumpled demigod on the ground; fresh scarlet blood flowing out of the wound in his side.

As soon as Percy's eyes met the image of the body on the ground, an electric shock ran through down his spine and chilled his blood into ice. Everyone recognized the body in front of Reyna.

Percy couldn't believe his eyes. It was-

"Octavian..." Reyna muttered, extending a gentle hand out towards the figure before her; a look of pure sorrow shimmering in her eyes. He did not move when she gingerly touched his bleeding side, the only sign of life from his body was the river of blood running down his armor and onto the ground.

In the distance he heard tiny squeaks of some sort of creature overhead. Percy broke his gaze away from Octavian's motionless body and glanced upwards into the sky; training his eyes on a small black figure flying close to the gathering demigods. From what Percy could see, the small black figure was a bat.

It was Frank.

Frank flew cautiously towards the back of the demigod group where he transformed back into his human self without attracting much attention from anyone else. He glanced through the group in confusion, his face growing in alarm when he met eyes with Percy.

"Is that...?" he whispered, peering at Octavian around his friend, like a kid hiding behind his mother's back. "Is he...?"

The girl who'd been wailing was escorted away, leaving the group of hundreds of demigods almost silent except for the occasional murmur of disbelief.

Reyna just sat there, letting Octavian's blood stain her outstretched hand, staring at it. She seemed to be mesmerized by the dark color of it, swirling in the green of the grass. It was gruesome and unlike anything Percy's ever seen before; even Annabeth appeared at his side again and pressed against him, letting out little gasps through her teeth.

Percy felt like he was in a movie. The situation didn't feel real; how could one of the people he hated most be...dead? Octavian had so much life in him, enthusiasm. Sure, he was pretty much a cold-blooded killer, but Percy still spent those weeks with him in Camp Jupiter, made fun of him behind his back, watching him rip apart Beanie Babies, but now he was dead. Just like that. Quicker than he could see.

They'd seen Silena Beauregard die during the second Titan War. That was terrifying enough, even though she was covered by armor.

Octavian, though- All of that blood staining his purple shirt and pouring onto the grass, sticky and dark...

That struck Percy right in his chest and he wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or guilty. It didn't feel _real_.

They stayed, frozen like that, for what seemed like hours.

The sun was just above the horizon, clearing the mist on the sound and bathing the world in a warm sherbet, though the air was frosty with death and tasted like iron in their mouths.

Then, finally, Reyna stood. When she turned to look at Percy and Jason, her eyes were red. Percy had never seen her cry, and he never really wanted to.

"This was of your camp's doing?" she asked in a soft voice, which was more terrifying than her shout of fury. Her dark eyes shone, but they barely betrayed any emotion. Her face was a blank page, staring right into Percy's soul.

Ignoring the urge to scream like a little girl and run away, Percy cleared his throat and opened to his mouth to answer, but was interrupted.

"It was an accident," spoke an orange-clad camper Percy didn't recognize bravely, stepping into the circle a little. She was careful not to tread in blood as she addressed Reyna. "Poppy and I just came here a few months ago. She had her sword out when everyone started fighting again and someone...someone pushed her and she fell into Octavian." Her chin trembled but she held her head high.

Someone, a Roman, let out a sarcastic laugh from in the midst of the group. "Oops, I fell on a Roman with my sword! It was just an accident! Don't kill me!" All around him, his friends began snickering; others wiped away tears from their eyes.

"Do not laugh," snapped Reyna in their direction, and things fell silent again. She turned her gaze to the girl who was standing slightly inside the circle. "Octavian's death was no accident. Newly recruited or not, she will have to pay." Reyna looked at the two boys she thought she knew. "You try and convince me to join you, and then you slaughter my advisor in cold blood? Do you honestly think, Perseus Jackson, that _this_ is how you escape war?"

Behind her, a few Romans came and carried Octavian's body, which was pale and drained of all blood, off so it didn't get trampled.

"He brought that upon himself," Percy responded quietly. "I'm sorry, Reyna, but it was his choice to come here and attack us. If he thought your legion would escape with all of their lives, he was mistaken."

"Don't make excuses!" Reyna shrieked, throwing up her bloody and hands and making Percy back up a few steps. "You say you're trying to stop a war, to save lives, yet all you Greeks do is destroy_, _you _worthless _excuse for a demigod." She was shaking and her face was red and her eyes were shining again, but this time with anger. "You should have stayed in Tartarus where you belong, with the other _monsters_."

Nico stepped in front of Percy, who was speechless with shock, and pointed his sword directly at Reyna, a look of pure hatred on his pale face. "You attack Camp Half-Blood in the name of war, tell us there is no way to escape it, and then declare we are to blame because someone _died_? That's what war is, people _die. _If anyone is to blame, it isn't her..." He gestured over to the girl to his side who backed up deeper into the group of demigods, and then back to Reyna. "It's you. You killed Octavian by bringing him to war. Where's your Roman honor now?"

"War is about _victory."_ Reyna took her javelin, which was slick with Octavian's blood, and raised it above their heads. "And tonight, we will be _victorious!"_

Romans all around shouted and raised their own weapons, a battle cry that echoed over the whole valley.

"If that's what you think," Nico spat back at Reyna. "Then you'll be nothing but sorry souls in the lowest depths of Tartarus."

When the last words escaped Nico's lips, the Roman's charged.

The whole thing sprung up so suddenly, Percy was in such disorientation that he didn't even realize Hazel had stolen the megaphone until she yelled into it.

"Don't you see what you're _doing?!"_ Hazel marched right out in front of the group, confronting Reyna, her curly brown hair bounding on her shoulders. Her voice spilled from the mega-megaphone and nearly burst Percy's eardrums.

Reyna looked momentarily deaf, too. People grumbled and still shouted insults, but they stopped charging and at least their attention was directed to the small daughter of Pluto.

Reyna remained in front of the legion, panting and shaking with vehemence.

"Don't any of you see what you're doing?" Now with the attention of two whole armies, Hazel threw up an arm and gestured somewhere behind her. "There is a _war_ going on! We just sacrificed our lives to close the Doors of Death—Percy and Annabeth just spent a week in Tartarus, and for _what_?! Did they risk their lives in vain? Did we _all_ risk our lives in vain?

"There is a _war _going on out there and look at how selfish you all are being." Hazel, with her caramel eyes glittering with what might have been tears, looked at Reyna. "We're sorry about what happened. I know that sorry can never be enough, but even the Forum can be rebuilt. Our roads can be repaved, wounds stitched up. What happened to Octavian cannot be reversed, we know, but if we don't do something, he won't be the last death we witness. What we're failing to realize is that this is about more than just an old grudge. In less than two weeks, Gaea is going to rise again and she is _not_ going to be merciful."

Her voice rang loud over the fields, over the blood on the ground and through the warm evening air.

"After this is over, we can go back to hating each other for all I care, but right this second we can't have the luxury of being picky. We can't choose the friends we fight beside when we're all fighting for the same cause."

Frank felt his chest swell with unintentional pride so did the chests of the other demigods as well.

"We have to put aside the sour memories and negative feelings and the thousands of years of hatred, or we're all going to suffer. Because right now…we're all the same. We all live on the same earth, breathe the same air, and unless you guys want all of this…_life _to be destroyed by Gaia and her forces, then we need to stop."

After taking a second for that to soak in, Hazel continued, balling up her free fist.

"Gaia is not going to care if she's killing mortals or half-bloods. She's not going to care about grudges being held between…between _children_. She will rip our world limb from limb, and if all you're caring about right now is the different lineage of those around you, then I'm sorry, because right now, we're all fighting for the same thing. We're all on the same side with one common enemy."

She swept her gaze over all of the orange and purple. "And maybe—just maybe—if you take a look around you, you'll see things that you may not otherwise have seen. You know, maybe you'll see that…we're all not so different after all."

The last syllable hung in the air several moments after, and then finally, disappeared.

Crickets hummed.

Wind rustled the burnt forest.

Waves of salty ocean water lapped at the hull of the Argo II—

—and the silence, which wasn't really silence, clung to the soldiers like sweat.

Several members of Camp Half-Blood could be seen near the front of their group. Percy could see Clarisse La Rue from the Ares cabin with her boar-head helmet, Connor and Travis Stoll in their ridiculous getup from the Hermes cabin, Drew from the Aphrodite cabin, Katie from the Demeter cabin, Clovis from the Hypnos cabin—and so many others. They seemed to wedge themselves between others to get closer to the front, to make eye contact and feel what everyone else felt.

So many friends and familiar faces… It could only have been coincidence what happened next.

It started with the Camp Half-Blood counselors. They pulled their helmets off, dropped them, and fell onto a single knee, head bowed to the ground. Within seconds, the others caught on. Demigod after demigod, swords and helmets dropped and the people of Camp Half-Blood knelt in front of Percy, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Annabeth, Leo, and Nico.

Percy was frozen with shock, and apparently, so were the Romans.

A few people in purple tried backing up, but stumbled over kneeling campers, who still had their heads bowed. The Romans whipped their heads around in confusion, staring first at each other and then at Reyna, who was trying to set fire to Percy and Jason with her evil glare.

"They're right, Reyna," spoke a voice suddenly, from behind the praetor. When they looked, it was Dakota the centurion with his Kool-Aid-stained lips and angled brows. "We're all fighting for the same cause. What's the point of winning a war when there is no world to celebrate in?" The javelin he was holding dropped to the grass and he knelt, too.

Some Romans around him mumbled shocked words and continued to peer at Reyna for what seemed to be permission.

None of the Greek campers moved from their kneeling positions.

Then, another Roman camper stepped up. She had long hair and pretty eyes, but held herself cautiously.

"I don't want to die again," Gwendolyn said quietly, and tossed her plumed helmet at her praetor's feet, "and I trust Percy. He brought honor back to the fifth cohort, and none of us should ever forget that. I'm sorry." She, too, knelt.

It started like that, and then some of the others from Camp Jupiter gave defiant huffs and dropped onto their knees, rolling their eyes at their friends and shooting Reyna uncertain glances.

After a few minutes, only a few people left were standing. All of them had enraged looks on and had balled fists, looking like they wanted to kick the kneeling people around them.

"You killed Octavian!" one of them shouted angrily, and spat on the ground. "We're never kneeling to you, _traitors._" He pushed over the nearest kneeling person with his foot, which could have been funny if it weren't for the situation.

"Pick up your weapons and fight, coward," snapped another Roman standing to one of his kneeling legion-mates. "Romans don't bow to anyone!"

The girl he was talking to shrugged her shoulders as if it wasn't a big deal. "Die if you want, Julian. I'm just thinking about the future of the camp."

"Yeah," agreed another legionnaire. "Not to mention the future of the world. They may be Greeks, but they are also _right_. If you were wise, you'd put down your weapons, too."

"I will do no such thing," spat the standing Roman. He snapped his head up and began wading through the sea of kneeling demigods towards their praetor. "Tell us what to do, Reyna. We can't join them. They killed Octavian. We should fight_._"

Leo, who'd been standing in silent shock next to Piper, shrugged his scrawny shoulders and said, "Looks like you're outvoted, bro."

The other boy's face turned purple from being called "bro" and he kept staring at Reyna for directions.

Reyna looked like she'd turned to steel. Her face was a very pale shade of white and her muscles seemed to be clenched too tight to move. Instead of staring at Percy or Jason, she was focused on a point in the distance, scowling and barely breathing at all.

From the corner of Percy's eye, he saw Coach Hedge run off towards the woods near another cluster of scared-looking satyrs. Probably to tell everyone how many monsters he killed and trains he derailed.

A few seconds passed when everyone just stared. Even the kneeling demigods lifted their heads to furrow their brows tentatively at the daughter of Bellona.

"There will be no more fighting today," Reyna said finally, in a voice so quiet they had to strain to hear. She shook her head and straightened up, turning her fiery gaze to Percy. "I will not apologize, and I will not kneel," she said with a voice that could have cut glass if it was not just a voice, "but I have to do what is best for my legion.

"We are not allies, Perseus Jackson, but we will fight the giants with you. No more of my soldiers will die. Not if I can help it. After this war, we will fight our own." She raised her chin up at Percy, her brown eyes shining with dark intent. It didn't matter anymore that Percy had saved her camp once from turmoil; the Reyna that had respected him was now long gone.

Only pausing to swallow hard, Reyna turned on her heel and stalked away to where the dead legacy of Apollo lay.

The Greek campers couldn't help the surge of hope that shuddered through them. Many of them leaped up and whooped, pumping their fists and punching one another in the shoulder happily. They looked a lot better than the Romans did, but from their perspective, the only thing serious that had happened was an enemy dying and the Romans submitting.

Like they hadn't nearly been burned out of their home or slaughtered.

"Dude!" said a younger Roman nearby, staring past them. "Is that rock-climbing wall...spewing _lava_?"

A demigod in orange grinned, like nothing had happened a few minutes before. "Yeah! Bet you can't get to the top faster than I can."

"You're on!"

The two demigods ran off, and Percy only watched them for a minute before turning back to Reyna. "If this is going to work, maybe we should...eat breakfast together or something, our two camps. After tidying up the place a bit, of course."

Reyna said nothing, and he only took that as a "yes." It was _his _camp, after all.

"Look at that..." Annabeth muttered. "One minute they're killing each other, and then the next thing you know they're racing to climb a deadly lava rock wall together. Why am I not more surprised?"

"They aren't bad people, you know. Just...different." Percy snuck a glance over at Annabeth, who shook her head.

Meanwhile, the two camps tentatively began conversing, asking about godly parents and how the cabin system worked. They seemed like they might actually be able to get along. Either no one saw the body-shaped lump under a sheet at the base of the pavilion, or no one cared to admit they had a fallen comrade.

People must not have liked Octavian as much as Percy thought. He supposed they only did what they were told, just like the typical Roman Legion should.

Though she looked a little ill, all Annabeth did was let out a big sigh. "Well, I guess we'd better go find Chiron, wherever he is."

Percy swallowed his anxiety and reached out to take her hand. Nico's words echoed through his ears, and he quickly retracted his hand and shoved it into his pocket. What was he doing? He was only hurting Annabeth by being clingy. "Yeah. I think you're right."

Trusting the others to handle things, the two demigods left, memories of blood and metal still fresh in their minds.

It seemed like years ago they were sitting in the mess hall, eating donuts and cracking jokes at Coach Hedge's expense. So much has happened in the time they had spent together on the Argo II...They had escaped Tartarus, fought mental exhaustion along the track home, and now the fear of the Romans had depleted to almost nothing, just like that.

If they survive the war, could the two camps really be friends, or will Reyna's hatred keep them apart forever?


	7. Chapter 7

It took a lot of work restoring Camp Half-Blood back to how it was before. A few cabins were damaged, the Big House needed to have one of its walls rebuilt, and just the general state of the camp was upturned. Demeter campers and the few satyrs that were there got to work mending the burned forest, though Percy didn't see Grover anywhere in that group.

Working with the Romans was strange, for sure. Over half of the Camp Jupiter campers teamed up with the Greek campers to help work, when the rest still didn't like affiliating themselves too much. The latter stayed near Reyna, who was silently readying Octavian for his funeral ritual. He may not have been liked that much, but Romans honored their rituals of death and made it clear that it was to be held after lunch and no one was to miss it.

As Percy worked, Dakota-who had decided they could be friends again-filled him in on what happened when someone as important as Octavian died.

"They put a gold laurel on his head and put denarii on his eyes for an honorable passage to death," Dakota had explained as they watched Reyna and some of the other Romans cover Octavian's body with a golden silk sheet that carried the symbol of the sun on its shiny surface. "I didn't know the guy all that well but..." He took a swig of Kool-Aid out of a flask strapped to his belt and wiped his lips with his sleeve, "it's going to be hard to regroup after his loss. Especially when he died for New Rome."

After his talk with Dakota, Percy steered clear from his other Roman friends and from the sight of Octavian's body covered in a shroud. Percy felt strangely ashamed that he had let anyone die in a battle he was so sure he could prevent, even though Reyna had made it very hard to divert the battle otherwise. Still, the chilling image of Octavian's life source leaking out from the fatal wound on his side made him sick to his stomach, and the guilt gripped his heart like a poisoned claw. Not even the comfort of his Camp Half-Blood friends could stop the bursts of painful sadness that flowed throughout his body.

The sun was nearing the center of the sky. It hung a sickly, pale yellow in the cloudless blue of the day. Percy squinted upwards, thinking of his mom and of his old apartment and Olympus. He was so lost in thought, he only looked away when someone cleared his throat.

Chiron was standing there, a bandage on one of his forelegs and wearing his #1 Centaur shirt. "It's good to see you again after so long. Everyone was worried about you, my boy, especially when we received that Iris-Message Piper and Jason sent to us after you and Annabeth..." He shook his head and sighed what seemed to be a sigh of relief, a smile forming on his aged face. "Well, Percy, I wanted to thank you personally," he said, clasping the son of Poseidon's shoulder. "You've helped save countless lives from unnecessary war. The gods will truly be in your debt for this."

A few hours earlier, Percy and Annabeth had found the old centaur up in the Big House. They'd brought him back outside and introduced him to Frank and Hazel, and everyone had their reunion. Though it almost seemed like home again, Percy couldn't shake the feeling of dread. They weren't back for good. No matter how awesome it was to see his old camp again, to see Chiron and his old friends after almost a whole year, he almost didn't want to get attached. Something would happen again. Whether it be the end of the world or not, Camp Half-Blood was going to change forever.

"It was nothing, Chiron..." Percy tried as hard as he could to sound cheery, but as soon as his words left his mouth he knew they had betrayed him. "We just did what we thought was right." His words sounded so generic and flat. He couldn't hide what he was truly feeling, especially not from Chiron. Since when did his words sound so hollow?

The old centaur read into his words and shook his head sadly. "I wish this could all be over, too, Percy, and I never thought I'd see Romans and Greeks working together in all my years. I only wish it could be under better circumstances."

"I don't think we'll even really be able to coexist peacefully after Octavian's death. Reyna did make it clear that after-or _if-_we even survive Gaea's onslaught that we're going immediately to war between our camps." Annabeth appeared at Percy's side with her arms crossed. Her face hadn't changed from a scowl all morning. "They're so _stu-_"

"Hey, watch what you're saying." Hazel, too, walked up next to Chiron, Annabeth and Percy. Her curly cinnamon hair was askew and there was some dirt smeared on her purple Camp Jupiter shirt she wore that day. "Camp Jupiter might be really mad at me and Frank, but we're still a part of the Legion." She looked down in uncertainty, her face loosening from any emotion. "Anyways...everyone is getting pretty hungry right now. Never mind angry, the last thing we want is a group of_ hungry_ demigods."

"Yes, yes," Chiron agreed, frowning out over the valley where campers scurried around busily. His face was creased deeply, and there were obviously many things troubling him, but he said none. "I should grab a few others and pull out a few dozen more tables around the pavilion, then. It is not often we have guests, let alone a whole Roman Legion. I do hope, at least, the Romans are aware of our 'no food-fight' policy. Having three hundred people throwing food out here would make quite the mess to clean." His frown deepened and his face was slowly draining of color, and his hands were clasped in nervous worry. It was obvious, however, that his worry wasn't for the food.

The three demigods standing near the centaur frowned for a moment, looking out at all the others spread across the entire camp, marveling at the pegasi, challenging each other at the rock-climbing wall, taking a look at the cabins and helping tidy things up. Percy would have guessed they hadn't been trying to kill each other, but what does he know?

"Should we..." Percy started uncertainly, "go tell them that it's lunchtime?"

"No Percy, we should let them starve." Annabeth punched Percy in the arm, attempting her usual smirk. "Maybe I should go tell Reyna first and let her tell her legion... Hopefully, she won't spear me before I get within shouting distance." Her smile disappeared and turned into concern. "You don't think she'll try something when we're at peace right?"

With a chuckle, Chiron patted her back with a tired smile. "You're working yourself up, Annabeth. I'm about..." He tapped his bearded chin in thought, "...75% sure that she won't harm you. In your standards of safety, I'd say that's safe enough."

Hazel, Percy, and Annabeth stared back at him with raised eyebrows.

Chiron raised up his hands up in defense. "Kidding, I was kidding. Don't look at me like that."

With only a frowny, exasperated look back, Annabeth made her way back down the slope of the camp and to where Reyna was.

After she was gone, Chiron turned to the daughter of Pluto. "Hazel, my dear, would you mind if I had a moment alone with Percy before everyone starts gathering?"

Hazel stuttered agreement, flustered by being directly spoken to by someone like the camp director. "Oh, u-um, yes sir! I'll just...go to, uh... Hey look! There's Leo!" Without a backwards glance, she ran down from the Big House and towards the beach where Leo and a dozen other demigods were standing around the Argo II staring up at it appreciatively.

Watching her, Percy longed he could run, too, and jump into the ocean without a care in the world, laughing with his friends, or maybe sitting with Annabeth and talking. He couldn't do that, of course. No matter how much he wanted to throw every worry he had to the wind, he just couldn't. Not until this was war was over and the scars of his experience in Tartarus became bearable. After all the depressing impending doom stuff was over, however, he was going to sleep until noon every day for a week, eat ice cream for dinner and play video games until his brain bled out of his ears.

Sighing with longing, Percy turned his attention nervously to his old mentor, who was giving him a stern sort of look. His facial expression took Percy back to the days when he knew Chiron as Mr. Brunner, and that face he would give Percy after failing a quiz. Needless to say, he got that look _a lot_ back then.

"I've been thinking that it would be a good idea to tell me what happened, Percy," said Chiron gently, adjusting the strap of his quiver on his chest. As far as was seen, he hadn't actually fought the Romans when they'd first arrived. Maybe the bow and quiver were just for look.

Percy just shifted on his feet uncomfortably. "I told you the truth when you asked earlier."

"No, my boy. I want you to tell me the _whole _truth_."_

Something about his old mentor's tone made Percy's stomach clench. Did Chiron know something? Certainly Annabeth didn't tell him... She barely even had time to stop and breathe that morning. Even if she hadn't, how could Chiron have found out?

Licking his lips nervously, Percy weighed his options. Annabeth might kill him if he told anyone what really happened. Arachne, Tartarus, her losing her mind and Percy trading his sword for her memories, how she was still seeming to be losing her mind. She might not want anyone knowing about any of that, but it was _Chiron._

From a ways away, Percy could see the small figure of his girlfriend out by the volleyball court, sitting on the grass with a dozen other campers in orange. They all seemed to be huddled over a pile of papers, deeply immersed. Almost as if she sensed him looking at her, Annabeth glanced up, saw him, and waved half-heartedly.

Percy waved back, biting his lip. She had to be okay with it.

Only after taking a deep breath, he told Chiron everything: the uncensored version, completely unlike how he'd tell his mom. It just tripped from his mouth, stumbling and falling on its way out, the (whole) truth rolling away but filling him with guilt and uncertainty that almost made his chest heavier than it had been before. However, when he finished and took a deep breath, the look on his mentor's face made him feel a little better.

Chiron rubbed his beard in thought, gazing contemplatively over the valley. He didn't look pitying or distraught or particularly amazed, which made Percy grateful. The last thing he wanted was someone else's feelings to worry about.

Finally, after a long while, the old centaur let out a deep sigh. "The Fates have never been fair, Percy. Not to gods, not to demigods, not to mortals...no matter if they're heroes or not. It's always been that way, _especially _with heroes such as yourself. For every fortune that happens in life, there is a misfortune along the way..." He caught Percy's confused face, and cleared his throat. "What I'm saying, Percy, with every bad action, there is some sort of opposite action of good. It's the balance in which every being in born into. Heroes are bound to the misfortunes because of their fortunes."

"So...you're saying that my life is going to get worse? Because that is exactly what I didn't want to hear," Percy mumbled unhappily. This conversation wasn't making him feel any better.

Chiron shook his head. "There is always going to misfortune for you. That's what being a hero is about. Think about your namesake, Percy. Why was he the only hero with a happy ending, do you think?"

Percy shrugged. He'd almost forgot about the hero Perseus, almost forgot that was even his full name. His mother always told him she named him after the only Greek hero who had a happy ending, but she never actually told him how his story ended.

"Because," the centaur raised his hands up in the air like the answer was spelled out in the clouds, "his life was terrible from the very beginning." Chiron lowered his hands and placed them on Percy's shoulders, wrinkled smile forming on his lips. "After all the heartbreak and unhappiness you have faced, all the trials you have endured, it will only make you stronger in the end. You are a great hero, Percy. Just like the original Perseus."

Clearing his throat and adjusting his quiver again, as if it bothered him, Chiron continued, "If we win this war, you-with the help of the others, of course-saved the world. There is a reason you were offered the position of a god." His eyes twinkled.

"I appreciate you saying all these things, Chiron, but I don't see how it's supposed to help us." Percy felt like putting his head in his hands, but he kept standing straight despite everything wanting to pull him into the ground. "How is it supposed to help _her_?"

"Annabeth can help herself, and I think you know that."

"What about Chris? He couldn't help himself. He couldn't even stop screaming after we saved him...until Mr. D..."

Chris Rodriguez, a counselor and Clarisse la Rue's boyfriend, had been driven mad in the underground maze Daedalus had constructed years ago. Mr. D, Dionysus, had helped him-

Percy's question almost seemed to answer itself, but as quick as he got excited, his shoulders drooped. "Mr. D isn't back, is he?"

"No, my boy. He is still trying to fix his, ah..._problem_ up in Olympus, like so many others. I do not believe Annabeth needs his help, though. The best healer for scars like this is time. Oh, look," Chiron said, changing his tone of voice, making is clear that their conversation had to end.

Down in the valley, all of the demigods seemed to be pausing their work and gathering together. From where they stood, Percy could see the purple shirts matting into one group, the orange in another, though there were a few mingling.

"Lunchtime! Come, my boy." Chiron turned and began trotting calmly away towards the dining hall, leaving Percy with no option other than follow.

Lunch started in confusion and discomfort. There were enough tables for everyone, but the Greek campers didn't want to stick to their usual table arrangements, but the Legion didn't feel like they were a part of things enough to join anyone at the tables, and for the first half-hour was spent jogging around trying to talk to others and tell them to _please_ not throw their food. Connor and Travis Stoll had to be told off several times.

By the time Percy had settled down at the Poseidon table, the whole valley was filled with talking and laughter and sounds of eating.

"It's strange how they're all getting along like this," said Annabeth, appearing at Percy's side with a plate of food. Her blond hair was straggly and pulled away from her face in a ponytail, and her face was pale, void of color except for dark blue circles under her eyes. A few days before, she'd had a nasty fever and could barely hold herself up. Had the sickness not gone completely away before they plunge head-first into the next step of their journey?

Percy worried and worried, and it gnawed him to bones. He should get nectar and ambrosia for her-or maybe a hot towel or...ice water?

When she sat, Percy felt his throat close briefly in upset, but didn't let anything betray how he was really feeling. He had to let her get better on her own "They were just following Reyna and Octavian." His gaze avoided hers, staring intently at his plate as if it was a TV screen set on his favorite channel. "I don't think anyone really wanted to go into a war."

"No one does."

"Does what?" Out of nowhere, Leo practically flew onto the bench on the opposite side of the table, smeared with grease and dirt. Shortly after he arrived, Hazel, Frank, Nico and Piper appeared, too, holding food and looking surprisingly happy.

Percy wished he could feel as happy as they looked. "No one wants to go into war. Hey, where's Jason?" he asked to Piper, who was cutting a veggie burger in half.

Glancing up, Piper sucked a bit of tomato off of her thumb before saying, "He said he had business to attend to." Although she didn't look too happy saying that, she didn't say anything else and busied herself with eating.

Somehow, Percy knew that Jason was with Reyna. Seeing how neither of them were visible in the crowded area, draped over tables and benches and sitting on the grass, he guessed that they were seeing to Octavian's upcoming rite.

It made him nervous.

All through eating, he barely said anything, just kept his gaze trained on his picked-at food. How in the living Hades will they get through this?

After about an hour, the noise began dwindling and people began stretching themselves out on the grass, digesting lazily in the sun. The repairs to camp had been going over so well, Chiron said that everyone could have the rest of the day off after meeting at the chariot race track for Octavian's funeral in two hours.

That seemed fair to Percy considering the strange string of events that transpired that day.

Most of his friends were off doing their own thing, leaving him stranded at the lunch table. Percy hadn't left (or moved at all) from the table after lunch, mostly because his head was too preoccupied with everything that could go wrong. He'd barely eaten anything, but wasn't feeling very hungry. Even sitting there for several hours, the food remained untouched until it was time for Octavian's funeral rite.

Part of him was curious; he'd never seen a Roman funeral. They don't burn shrouds, do they?

When it was time for them to be heading to the race tracks, Annabeth came up to the dining pavilion to get him.

"Come on, Perce," she said, holding out her hand. "We should be going down."

Her hand felt too hot in Percy's, and he knew that she had a fever. Everything about her seemed sickly; her face was still as white as a sheet, there were still blue bags under her eyes, her lips were dry and her skin was hot. Even her voice sounded hoarse as though her throat was hurting.

Despite everything, though, Percy didn't say anything. He couldn't. Trying his best to ignore his worry, he just took his girlfriend's hand and let her lead him further down into the valley.

The ocean was turning a crystal green in the early afternoon light. Percy and Annabeth were standing on the beach after the funeral, staring out across the ocean, which was ebbing and flowing slowly like the beating of a giant heart. The backs of their hands were touching, but that was the only contact between them, which was alright.

Behind the dunes, a makeshift ledge was built on the edge of the chariot tracks. Octavian's body-dressed in a fresh toga and crown of leaves-lay motionless in the short vigil that was possible. The denarii on his closed eyes glittered in the hot midday sun. Occasionally, a cluster of Roman demigods would linger near him, stand there for a few minutes, and then leave with their heads bowed. Even some Camp Half-Blood campers wandered by every now and again, sneaking guilty glances at Octavian's body.

Percy still wasn't sure how to feel about that; should he be relieved that that maniac was gone or should he feel guilty he died? He knew he should be feeling guilty. The whole point of making peace with the Romans was to save lives, and no matter how much of a jerk Octavian was, no one should wish death on someone else. Even someone like him didn't deserve to _die._

As if reading Percy's mind, Annabeth slipped her hand into his and squeezed it tightly. "I know," she whispered so quietly he could have imagined it.

Percy shrugged weakly at her words, knowing there was nothing to say. What _could _he say? No words about Octavian's fate would make his death justifiable and guilt-free, although he wished there was something to make him less upset about it. He had always known that being a demigod was dangerous; with monsters and vengeful gods hiding at every corner to kill you just for being born. It's something that all demigods had to learn as an indisputable way of life, kill or be killed.

This time, however, was different. Octavian had been killed by another demigod, a Half-Blood camper no less, and all for a battle that didn't even have to happen in the first place.

There was an awkward dark cloud hanging over the heads of the Greek campers, a cloud fueled by the death of Octavian and the guilt that everyone felt over it. Sure it had been the Roman's fault for coming to the camp, sure it had been Octavian's own choice to fight, but that still didn't make anyone feel any better knowing that he had died over it.

Mostly to distract himself, Percy swallowed and glanced over at the docked Argo II. "We should probably get the statue out before leaving tomorrow."

"We're not taking it to Olympus?" Annabeth sounded genuinely confused, as though she thought the decision was made without her.

"We can take it there after we go to Greece."

_If we survive. _That was what both of them were thinking, even if it wasn't said aloud.

The silence settled between Percy and Annabeth again, and was only broken when Annabeth turned and made a _mh_ sound in the back of her throat. "Looks like the Romans are setting up camp next to the canoe lake."  
Percy turned as well and saw a bunch of purple-clad demigods were wrestling with tent poles. In the middle of the group stood Reyna. She was easy to see, with her perfect posture, making wild hand gestures at a few Romans rolling around in a pile of tent. She didn't resemble the Reyna that was fueled by anger and hatred towards the Greeks, she looked calm and at peace. At least, until she glanced upwards and met Percy's eyes.

As if on cue, her brown eyes turned hateful and narrowed at him, her lip curling slightly in disgust. Just as soon as he had caught her stare, Reyna dropped it like a radioactive potato and continued setting up the camp next to the canoe lake, pretending that Percy didn't even exist.

For a split second, the glare made Percy unbelievable mad. Why was she being so hostile towards him? Did she forget everything he had done for her and her _stupid_ camp?

He wanted to churn the water by the lake into a massive wave; splash Reyna and all the Romans in their camps without a single warning. She'd think twice about looking at him with such disgust ever again.

"Just let it go, Percy," Annabeth said quietly beside him, knowing what he was thinking before he even told her. "She has a right to be angry."

"She doesn't have to take it out on _me_."

"Don't be so childish."

"I'm not the one being ch-"

"Oh, for the love of the gods..." Annabeth yanked his hand away from the direction of Reyna and began practically dragging him down the sand. It wasn't really his version of a romantic walk on the beach, but it would have to do. At least he didn't have to endure glares from Reyna.

"You could at least try to hide your anger, Percy. You were making the water bubble up." She narrowed her eyes on Percy and tightened her grip on his hand. She was definitely getting her strength back, Percy thought. Otherwise, his hand wouldn't be turning as purple as Mr. D's nose just from the sheer grip of her hand. "If you so much as even splashed them with a pint-full of that seawater, they would've speared you dead! We're supposed to give them a reason _not _to kill us, remember? That's the plan!"

"Yeah, I know..." He actually didn't quite understand why a splash of water would've warranted a spear to the face. He also didn't understand why he was so angry either. Maybe it was an accumulation of everything that had happened recently and it all bottled inside him ready to burst; like a shaken soda waiting to explode as soon as you twisted the cap open. "The last thing I need right now is somebody sneaking dirty glances at me whenever I'm around them, regardless if they have a reason to be mad or not. Especially from people who...I expected to be around after all of this was over. Becoming neighbors with them, work with them...To be able to grow old around them..."

Percy didn't know where he was going with that. He was rambling. It didn't matter anymore what he wanted to do after all the prophecies and quests were over with; the chances of going back to Camp Jupiter as a friend were about zero to one, especially since Reyna made it painfully clear that after (or if) the demigods won the war with Gaea they would have to fight their own war.

Even from a (sort of) friend's point of view, the Romans were frighteningly cutthroat and arrogant.

"You know, Percy..." Annabeth said after a long pause, and her voice was a lot softer than it had been before. Even her grip loosened. "Ever since that night when we snuck out to the stables, I keep thinking about what you said."

Uh-oh.

Percy's throat dried up and he just stared ahead. Maybe it would have been better if they stayed silent and upset. His heartbeat was thumping in every square inch of his body, so hard he was afraid he wouldn't hear what Annabeth had to say next.

"I don't..." Clearing her throat almost uncomfortably, Annabeth glanced in the direction of Reyna, and then back. Her brows were furrowed and she was biting her lip as though something really disturbed her.

It took a few seconds for her to finish the thought.

"I don't think Reyna's ever going to want us in New Rome," she said, giving Percy's hand a squeeze, "but, you know...we could see if we could stay near New York, to be close to _our_ camp. I mean...I was thinking about going to this one college in Pennsylvania, but if you-"

"Annabeth, don't make any decisions based on what I want, okay?" Swallowing hard and forcing his heart to slow down, Percy put his arm around Annabeth's shoulders and gave her a one-armed hug. "You of all people should know. Do what _you_ wan-"

"I _want _to stay with you, Perce."

That surprised him. Not that she wanted to stay with him, but that she told him so readily. Even though she'd been doing strange things like telling what she feels, what she said still startled him.

When he raised his eyebrows at her, she just laughed.

"I'm serious." Annabeth tucked her arm around Percy's waist and their steps matched in the sand. "Even if we don't become buddy-buddy with those insolent Romans, New Rome isn't the only place in the world we can live."

Percy was silent.

"Maybe we can move to _real_ Rome, or get a beach house in Greece, overlooking the water. We can go see the Parthenon, and all of the old temples, and the architecture..." She paused and looked at Percy, her eyes searching his. A smile started to form on her lips. "You're blushing."

_Blushing _was an understatement. His face felt as hot as it did when they'd had their first kiss on the inside of that volcano.

"Of course," Annabeth continued, as though her boyfriend's reaction was perfectly normal, "that's all if we actually manage to defeat Gaea and her army. With Camp Jupiter on our side, though, we just might have a chance."

Percy was impressed by her optimism. "You've given it much thought?"

"'_Much thought'_?" A small, bitter laugh escaped Annabeth's throat. "It's all I can think about; it's eating me alive. I can hardly eat, I can hardly sleep." Her eyes suddenly grew foggy as she stared at the ground ahead of them while they walked. "The nightmares, too. The nightmares are pretty bad. Especially when I'm awake for them."

There was fear in her voice, the shaking kind that Percy so rarely heard. He didn't know what to do: follow Nico's advice or follow his heart?

Swallowing and frowning, Percy tightened his arm around her and, in a hoarse voice, said, "There's nothing I can do to fix you, but you know I'll do anything I can to help you. You can talk to me."

"That's what I'm doing _now_." The smile on her face was sad. "It's hard, though. I hate being so vulnerable."

"No one's invincible, Annabeth. I know you're scared, and I know it's hard, but we'll get through this." With his free hand, Percy reached up and tucked a bit of stray blond hair behind his girlfriend's ear, trying his best to convince himself as well as her. "Don't worry; by the time school starts again, we'll be back to complaining about homework and rocks in our shoes rather than all of this nonsense."

Annabeth was quiet for a minute, kicking pebbles along the beach with the toe of her sneaker. Then she slowed them to a stop, and her voice was soft when she spoke. "...Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything. Just everything." Annabeth reached up to put her hand on Percy's cheek, and kissed him.

It was quick and sweet, but meant the world to Percy. It even almost made him want to cry, because her lips tasted like sadness: blood and tears.

When she drew back, Annabeth's eyes were red, but there weren't any tears. "We should be getting back," she said, resting her forehead on his with a heavy sigh. "It's almost dinnertime. You know what _that _means."

Percy raised his eyebrow at his girlfriend. "...Food?"

"Food, yes, but something much more than just that, Percy. We have to discuss battle plans."

"So? If you're the one making plans, I'm trusting they're going to be pretty intense."

"We have to make plans _with _the Romans, not for them. Camp Half-Blood can't take sole responsibility for this mission; Reyna would rather die than allow Greeks to plan everything on their own."

Percy felt his face twist up into a scowl. "If I remembered the prophecy right, I thought the seven demigods were supposed to lead the mission anyway...so does it really matter who plans what?"

"If we don't want Reyna to take our heads back to Rome as trophies, her inclusion—or just agreement-is pretty crucial."

A small sigh bubbled from his mouth. "As always, _Wise Girl_, you're right. We'll figure something out."

"Don't worry." Annabeth turned her gaze in the direction of Camp Half-Blood's vast woods, and her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I already have some pretty good ideas I'm willing to share with everyone else. In the meantime," she waved her boyfriend's raised finger and unspoken question away, "let's get back and see if there's anything more we can help out with before dinner."

Without waiting for Percy's consent, she grabbed his hand and began tugging him in the opposite direction down the beach, back towards Camp.

That evening, dinner was organized shortly after the last of the purple tents were set up on the chariot tracks. Everyone was hungry and tired, but there were incredibly few demigods that still felt eager to pick fights. Obviously, Reyna was still incredibly upset, but made no move to behead any Greeks, so everything was going smoothly. She even refrained from making too many sour faces when asking about the meeting afterwards.

"It would be a little...distracting to have everyone there at the amphitheater, wouldn't it?" Frank said uncertainly, tearing apart bits of his burrito with a fork. "Having a few hundred demigods shouting their opinions at us while we're actually trying to think of something that'll work."

Reyna's gaze was as sharp and colorless as diamond. "If you think you can leave out the Rom-"

"We're _not_." Before things could turn sour, Percy interrupted, laying his hands flat on the table. "How about this: only senior counselors and centurions can come. Everyone will be able to put in their input if they have it, and once we've decided what to do, they can go tell the others."

His suggestion sounded very much not like a suggestion and more of an order, which was strange coming from _him_, but it worked.

Reyna tilted her head to the side, black hair falling in front of her eyes. "Very well. Seven o'clock at the amphitheater." With that, she spun around and left. No one even had any time to blink or point out it was in no way her meeting to take charge of.

At that time of evening, the sky was darkening. A shade of purple was washing over Camp Half-Blood, turning the Long Island Sound into thousands of gallons of glowing sherbet. It would have been beautiful if it had been any other day, but no one was feeling the beauty of the world at that point.

Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Nico, Piper, and Jason were all sitting at a table in the mess hall together. That evening, Chiron was lenient on people of different godly parenthoods at different tables, mostly because the Romans didn't separate themselves in that fashion. Everyone ate wherever they liked, and it looked healthy for the relationship of the two types of demigods. They might have-dare Percy think it-actually been having a decent time, despite the circumstances.

Though the day was going better than he'd hoped, Percy was still feeling a rock of dread settling in the bottom of his stomach. Chiron only popped in every now and again, but mostly stayed inside the Big House. All of his old friends from that camp greeted him when he first got there, but after that they seemed to steer clear. Even Grover-whom Percy was looking forwards to talking with-was nowhere in sight. He looked for that satyr wherever he went, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. Neither was Nico, nor Coach Hedge.

Percy could have spaced out for the rest of the night, and _would_ have if it wasn't for Annabeth elbowing him gently in the arm.

"It's almost seven," she told him quietly and-after looking at the others for approval-actually stood up on the bench seat. Her throat was hoarse when she spoke, but her words still sounded loud and strong; it still sounded like Annabeth. "Senior counselors and centurions, if you'd make your way towards the amphitheater; a meeting about the next few days will be at seven!"

Annabeth stepped off the bench and held her hand out for her boyfriend to grab. "Come on."

Percy took her hand, and then waiting until the other five were up before heading out of the mess hall and down the slope of the valley to the amphitheater.

It took nearly half an hour for all of the invited Greeks and Romans to file onto the seats and settle, and by then, Annabeth had filled everyone-even Reyna-in on her plan. Chiron was standing way off to the side, eyes narrowed and hands folded in front of him, as though saying "I'll just sit back and watch how this plays out," which wasn't entirely like the centaur they knew.

"Should we..." Hazel mumbled uncertainly, glancing over at Chiron.

"No. He'll join us if he wants." Nico patted his sister's shoulder. "Don't worry about him. He wouldn't let anything get too out of hand, trust me." Hazel looked at Nico and nodded reluctantly, turning her gaze back towards Chiron nervously.

"Do you guys mind if I start out?" Clearing her throat, Annabeth waiting until everyone shrugged and agreed before stepping forwards.

When she spoke, her voice echoed across the entire amphitheater, shushing everyone sitting. "Gaia's army is growing stronger and stronger by the minute. That's a _fact_." A low hum of murmurs rung through the crowd, the atmosphere quickly seizing up at the mention of their common enemy. "We could not prevent her from gathering her power, we could only postpone it until Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood finally came together to form a plan. A plan to save mortals, gods and demigods alike."

From the mass of seated Romans, snide comments erupted from the silence of Annabeth's speech. "We would've been able to come together sooner if the Greeks hadn't blown up New Rome."

"Those _cowards _didn't even wait to bask in their destruction; ran with their tails between their legs like dogs."

Several Romans started laughing, but a number of Greeks (and even some Romans) shushed them.

There was a look on Annabeth's face, exasperation in her eyes which had rolled to the sky. She glanced over at her boyfriend, and then at Piper, who also rolled her eyes.

"Can everyone please be quiet?" the daughter of Aphrodite ordered-not asked-loudly and the crowd fell silent.

"Thank you, Piper," Annabeth said briskly and then addressed the group of centurions and senior counselors again. "I have a plan," she continued, "that should get all of us across the Atlantic, and cut over the land to Greece."

Gwyndolen, the girl who spoke up earlier, shifted in her seat. "Over? But the Argo II can only hold se en people! Or...that's what Leo said, anyways."

"It can." Leo, who was on the other side of Frank, shrugged. "I thought about maybe using magic to expand the interior or build onto it or something, but there wasn't enough time to expand and I don't even think it would be possible to expand just the inside, but..."

When he said "but," most everyone leaned forwards on their benches.

"...Beckendorf, the one who I originally got the idea for the Argo II, left a number of crazy-awesome modified, yet unfinished, fleet of war zeppelins in his hidden bunker."

No one seemed to wonder about the hidden bunker. Instead, whispers about zeppelins floating around in the mass of demigods, excited sounds and hopeful smiles.

The only thing on Percy's mind, however, was the why on Earth would Leo and Annabeth not tell him about The Plan? Were they the only ones who knew about it, or did the other four know as well?

He shot Annabeth a confused, indignant look and she shot him one back that clearly said, _Not now._

"It should only take a few hours to get those beauties up and running and armed, and it's pretty much as easy as that. We could have possibly used them before, but the Argo II just seemed too much cooler," finished Leo with an impish grin.

From where he left off, Annabeth picked up smoothly. "Tomorrow morning, everything should be ready to go. W-"

"What about us?" A burly, shot guy with strange neck hair and a purple T-shirt stood in the back and stuck his chin out. "There are some kids of Vulcan who are pretty good with our hands."

"The more the merrier," Annabeth said dryly without missing a beat. "Follow Leo to the bunker after this meeting's over. Anyways, my plan is this: aside from me, Percy, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Leo and Reyna, the rest of you will be dividing as equally as possible into the zeppelins. An equal number of both centurions and senior campers will be assigned to specific zeppelins and in charge of keeping peace, communications with the main vessel, etcetera."

"What's the main vessel going to be?" Clarisse la Rue asked in her usual gruff voice, crossing her muscular arms and looking incredulously at her boyfriend, Chris.

Everything in Percy's head suddenly snapped in place, puzzle pieces sliding together.

"The Argo II," he said, stepping forwards. "Us seven," he gestured to the seven demigods, "including Reyna, Nico-"

"I can fly with the other campers," Nico interrupted, furrowing his brows uncomfortably. "My big part of the quest is over."

"...Well, okay. Anyways, Reyna and possibly Chiron and anyone else we see fit like nature spirits or satyrs, will be leading the fleet in front. It'll be a tight fit, but from there, we'll cut a straight path-flying the whole way-avoiding the Mare Nostrum completely, landing on Greece just in time."

A sense of childish pride tickled in Percy's throat. He'd caught onto their plan and had been able to contribute instead of just standing there drooling while Annabeth did all the intelligent talking.

There was a few seconds of impressed silence while the group mulled things over. Several demigods then started whispering to one another, rubbing chins and considering the plan.

After a minute, Katie Gardener, from the Demeter cabin, spoke up. "Um, Annabeth, that's a pretty good plan, but do we even know where we're going in Greece? It's kind of a big place, and if we're on one side of the country while Gaia's on the other side, destroying everyone, well..."

Annabeth put her hands on her hips and admitted, "I'm not entirely sure, Katie. I have a few places in mind, a few landmarks from the ancient times, but since we really don't know all that much..."

"Well, didn't Gaia tell us she wants to splatter our blood on the steps of Mount Olympus?" Little Hazel, who'd been quiet the whole time, said timidly. "Shouldn't we look on the original Mount Olympus then?"

Sighing and scuffing the toe of her sneaker in the dirt impatiently, the daughter of Athena answered. "Olympus moves. It's not like the gods lived on an actual mountain in Greece and just packed their bags and left when they felt like. No. The gods and their fortress, Olympus, are hardly traceable and solid. For example, if Zeus decided New York was no longer the pinnacle of civilization and moves Olympus again, the space above the Empire State Building will just become air again. Nothing more, nothing less."

"No, Annabeth," Hazel insisted, looking terribly frustrated. "I know about Olympus moving. But it was on a mountain. Mount Olympus in Greece."

"No one knows what mountain they first called home. It became untraceable, like I said. The ground returned to being just another mountain, lost in the history of Greece. The Greeks were not past-dwellers; they kept hold on the gods, not the ground where they once stepped."

Looking embarrassed and disappointed, Hazel closed her mouth and pressed her shoulder against Franks.

"So the plan:" Jason, not wanting to be totally left out, glanced at Annabeth for affirmation before continuing, "Fix the zeppelins, divide everyone equally into them and senior counselors and centurions in each one, fly over the Atlantic Ocean, cut across the tip of Spain and go into Greece, where we pretty much scour the place for a sign, which we'll probably end up receiving eventually before Gaia comes."

"Exactly." Looking satisfied, Annabeth put her hands on her hips again and waiting until just about everyone seemed to be shrugging and nodding and pretty much thinking, It's all we have, so why not?

All but one dark figure at the side of the stairs looked content.

Only feeling a tiny bit of guilt, Percy waved everyone's whispers down with a hand and addressed the sulking figure. "What do you think, Reyna? What's your input on all this?"

Looking like she'd rather be anywhere else in the world, Reyna answered sharply, "The plan has holes and it is shallow, but if it's the best we have so be it. However, none of my people will take orders from yours, I hope you know."

"Or ours from yours, but Reyna, I hope you understand eventually that there can't be a 'them' and 'us' if we want to win this war." A hint of sadness, but strength, colored Percy's voice. He tried remembering what it felt like sitting next to Reyna, wearing identical purple T-shirts and smiling over pancakes in the morning. That only made him sadder. "We're equals, Reyna. We're h-"

"Equals?" fake-whispered a Roman kid in the front of the amphitheater, so everyone could hear him. "As if. They didn't even ask our input for the plan."

"Fine, then." Annabeth jerked her chin in his direction. "You have a better plan? A better idea? What are your thoughts, huh?"

For a second, silence.

The Roman sputtered and made an angry sound in the back of his throat, stumped.

"Ant that," Annabeth concluded, "is why I'm in charge of the idea-making around here."

A thick sense of finality settled after her last word, and it was a few seconds before Percy cleared his throat.

"So if no one has anything else to say, this meeting's over. Anyone who can be useful to Leo, follow him, otherwise go back to your cabins or tents or whatever."

The group broke. Demigods filed down the benches and muttered to their friends as they went. Most of them looked tired, but excited and nervous. Different groups left for the tents at the chariot fields and the cabins, too.

Yawning, Percy followed his girlfriend out onto the grass. "Are you heading to bed?"

"Eventually," Annabeth replied. "I'm dead on my feet, but there are some last-minute notes I should look over before going to sleep."

"Don't push yourself too hard, Annab-"

"Perce." She stretched on her tiptoes and gave Percy a small kiss. "Get some sleep yourself. Don't worry about me, okay?" Without waiting for a response, she left, her tangled ponytail bouncing on her neck as she faded into the dusk.

Unfortunately, that was the worst part about their relationship; he will always worry.


	8. Chapter 8

_Sorry it took so long getting this chapter out! Things are getting real intense real quick. _

_Please review if you like the chapter! Y'all are darlings._

**oOo**

It was in the middle of the night when a sound woke Percy from an uneasy sleep. His eyes peeled open to stare at the bottom of the bunk above him, the shadows of the boards looming over his face.

Maybe he'd imagined it.

Someone rapped on the door again.

Sighing, Percy stumbled out of bed and looked at his glow-in-the-dark alarm clock. It was only a little after midnight, and someone was knocking, wanting in, and he was only wearing a pair of pajama bottoms with prints of colorful Dr. Seuss fish on them. Oh well.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Percy padded over to the door and opened it, having to squint his eyes through the dark to see anything.

At first, all that was in the doorway was a slender, hunched shadow a darker shade of black than the world outside. It took a second for Percy's eyes to adjust, and when they did, he saw Annabeth. She was standing on the small wooden porch of the Poseidon cabin, wearing nothing but a too-big cotton shirt and a pair of thin shorts. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her hair was braided on either side of her head, but even in the dim lighting her face looked puffy and red.

"Annabeth," Percy said and automatically stepped aside to let her in. After the door swung closed behind her, he reached over to turn on the lamp in the corner to let some light in. "Is everything okay?"

Obviously, everything was not okay, but Annabeth just shrugged.

"Wait here."

It only took a few seconds for Percy to slip into the bathroom, fill up a glass full of cold water, and go back into the main room. Wordlessly, he handed the glass to his girlfriend, and then wrapped the blue comforter from his bed around her shoulders.

After a second and a few sips of water, Annabeth lifted her head and shrugged again guiltily. "I'm sorry I woke you," she said quietly, not meeting his gaze. "I...I had some nightmares and accidentally woke up my entire cabin, and I just... I just knew that if I had any more, you were the only one who wouldn't mind. Being woken up by them, I mean."

It looked like she'd gathered up a lot of courage to come to Percy, and he wasn't angry that she woke him. How could he?

"Of course I don't mind," Percy told Annabeth, wanting nothing more than to wrap her in his arms and bury his face in her hair. He didn't, however, and limited himself to reaching over and tucking a stray bit of blond hair behind her ear. "You can stay for as long as you want. Aren't you worried about the rules, though? If your cabinmates saw you leaving, do you think they'd snitch?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't care if anyone catches me. I don't care." Her gaze wandered to the black of night outside the window closest to Percy's bunk. "They probably won't snitch."

She was really scaring him.

Swallowing and taking a deep breath, Percy left again to dig around in the tiny linin closet across from his bathroom. Somewhere in the pile of unfolded linin were some spare sheets and pillows and blankets. When he found a set of bedclothes, he stood again and turned back to the room with his intentions being to make up a bed for Annabeth, but she already found a solution to that problem.

Wrapped in the blanket he'd given her, Annabeth was curled into a ball on Percy's bed, back pressed up against the wall and all but her closed eyes were covered.

A surge of pity and adoration gripped Percy's chest. She was just so small, and so helpless-looking, completely unlike Annabeth. When he dropped the linin and walked over to his bunk, he could see the circles under her eyes and the shininess of her cheeks brought on by dried tears. Was she already asleep?

As if sensing her boyfriend standing there, Annabeth's eyes peeled open and she shifted deeper into her cocoon. "Sorry," she said, not sounding like she meant it. Her eyes shut again.

After only a second of deciding whether he should or not, Percy gingerly slid into the bed next to his girlfriend. Sitting up, with his knees drawn to his chest, he twirled bits of Annabeth's hair around a finger. She looked so small and young like that, the blanket pulled up to her chin and the side of her face resting on a hand.

"Perce," she said in an almost inaudible voice. "Do you ever wonder what things would be like for us if we were just normal mortals? If, while Gaia was gathering her armies, we were miles away, lying on a different bed together, listening to the radio and laughing at bad jokes? We could wake up in the morning and make pancakes together and talk about how sucky our homework was and go shopping and get stuck in traffic and not have to worry about all this."

A mournful lump formed in Percy's throat. Fighting to keep a causal tone, he waited a second, and then answered. "Just because we're demigods doesn't mean we can't do normal things, Annabeth. After the war—"

"That's just the thing." Annabeth sat up. "_After_ the war_._"

"Hey, now." Percy said softly, interrupting his girlfriend by putting his arms around her and pulling her against him. "Whatever happened to the overly-confident, annoyingly logical girl I used to know, huh? You tell me not to worry, yet you worry twice as much as I do. We _can_ win this war."

"I never said we couldn't. In fact," the tone of voice Annabeth used sounded a little hopeful, but also a little dubious. Her eyebrows were knit as she spoke, "we might have a chance. I probably don't even know what I'm talking about, but think about it. If we win the war, great. The war's over, but what about _us_? Our lives? Will we always be afraid to go to sleep because of nightmares? Will we always be high-strung and awful to be around because we're always having mental breakdowns?

"Yeah, we might win this war, but for _what? _A world of suffering and scary dreams and post-traumatic stress disorder?" Annabeth's voice grew from dubious to morose, shaking with fear of their future. "I just want one night when I don't have nightmares, when I can fall asleep next to you without having to sneak around, dream of normal things, and wake up without my face covered in dried tears or stress acne."

The sadness from the one demigod leached into the other, filling Percy with such strong emotions he felt as though he was the one who'd said all that. His chest squeezed painfully around his heart. What could anyone say to that to make things better?

Percy tugged Annabeth onto the pillows so they were both lying down, facing each other, and he reached up to cradle her cheek in his hand.

"Annabeth," Percy said gently, choosing his words as one might choose steps to take on a minefield, "I know nothing I can do can make things better. I can't say 'Everything will be okay,' because they might not be, but I don't want you to be scared of—or dread—living."

Annabeth's lower lip began to stick out and she scowled at his chin with furious indignation, as if he told her something she couldn't do and she wanted to do it. "…Why not?"

"Because we're together, and that's all that matters, right?" A gentle, caring smile lifted the corners of Percy's mouth. "I will always be here for you, and with you. Always, and that's a promise." He sat up and began tucking the blue blanket around his girlfriend, covering her feet and enfolding her shoulders.

"Wait—" Annabeth struggled to break free from the tucking. "Perce—" She wiggled loose and got to her knees, wrapping herself around Percy tight.

Her legs straddled his crossed ones; her arms encircled his neck, holding his head against her chest; the blanket was twisted around her waist and half-draped around his.

"Gods…" Taking shaky breaths and burying her face in Percy's hair, Annabeth whispered, "I love you for saying that, Percy."

He was only surprised by the sudden embrace for a second, and when his girlfriend spoke, Percy put his own arms around her. "I love you, too. You know I do."

"I know. I _know_." Annabeth held her grip for a few more seconds and then sank, sliding her hands down his arms and settled herself in his lap. Then she took the fallen corners of the blanket and draped it over the both of them, capturing one another together in a cloak of warmth.

Emotions welled up again. Percy felt them press the insides of his throat and inside his stomach, and his legs were Jell-O even though he wasn't standing.

He loved her. He had to protect her. When she cried he wanted to take her pain away. When she was scared but didn't want to show it he wanted to prove she was safe. When she tried to be too strong and it ate away at her being, he wanted to hold her up and kiss her cheek and tell her she didn't need to worry or try to hide anything. She was everything in the world and he _loved_ her;

Her messy blond hair she never remembered to comb but always ragged him about combing his; the way she scowled at him when he didn't want her doing anything too unsafe; the little scars all over her skin and the tiny birthmark shaped like a diamond on her back; her laugh when he really got her laughing.

He just didn't know how to release all those bottled-up feelings and thoughts before they exploded inside of him.

Not knowing what else to do, Percy tugged on one of Annabeth's braids affectionately and went to kiss her cheek, but she turned at the last second.

Their lips matched clumsily at first, and then they slid together perfectly. Annabeth opened her mouth and Percy fought to restrain the noise that bubbled up from his throat when the sweet taste of her breath filled his lungs. He felt his heart skip several beats.

As if feeling the change in atmosphere, Annabeth pressed herself against him and slid her tongue just barely across Percy's lower lip.

Mother of Zeus.

There was a brief tingle of cold air and Percy felt Annabeth's cold hands sliding up his back, inside his shirt. Her pinky brushed against the skin where his Achilles spot used to be and a shiver went up his spine.

_Don't breathe into her mouth, idiot,_ Percy's head was telling him. _You haven't brushed your teeth since yesterday. Gross. And stop making that ridiculous noise. You probably sound like a dying animal_ _to her. What are you even _doing_? Wait; is that your tongue or hers—?_

"Why are you laughing like that?" Annabeth asked, pulling away for just a second to peer at Percy. Her face was red, but eyes bright and suddenly nervous.

He couldn't tell her what his brain was rattling off, so Percy just shrugged and tried to regain control of his breathing without sounding like a gasping fish out of water. No matter how much he didn't want to let go, he knew that unless Annabeth got off his lap soon and took her hands out of his shirt soon, something awful and embarrassing would happen and that would be the end of that.

"I understand," Annabeth said, without Percy even having to say anything. She glanced around them at the messy bed, making a face like, _Look where we are,_ and sighed. "Sorry, I guess."

She'd been apologizing a lot that night, but not once did she actually sound like she meant it.

Clearing his throat and dropping his hands down to his girlfriend's hips, Percy tried to pretend his heart wasn't going a billion miles an hour. "Anyways, Annabeth, you're always welcome with me. Here, wherever. You're stuck with me." The edge of his mouth twitched upwards and Percy wanted insanely to kiss her again, but she slid off before he got the chance.

"Good." Annabeth stretched out, and waited until Percy laid down, too, to wrap the blanket around the both of them and sank down into the pillows. "Sweet dreams, Perce."

Soft gold shadows scattered across her cheekbones from the lamp as the girl closed her eyes. Her skin turned honey and lips cherry red in the lighting, but the bags under her eyes stood out just as much as everything else. It was like watching a puppy starve to death.

Percy would not let that happen.

He wouldn't.

"Sweet dreams," whispered Percy, a few seconds too late. He kissed Annabeth's cheek before settling, too, drawing her hands to his chest with his own.

Listening to the steady breathing in the room and the sounds of the Long Island Sound pushing against the shore outside, the two demigods fell asleep like that, curled next to one another from the dark of the coming day.

Percy couldn't remember the last time he'd been outside on a meadowy hill as green as the one he was standing on when he opened his eyes next. Then again, he'd never even seen that place before.

All around Percy were giant masses of antifreeze-green mountains, golden brown rock wrapping around the hills like arms, dipping into a wide valley at the bottom. The sky was a vast as the ocean was deep, and the air was thick with moisture and nature smells, which he never got to smell in New York. Even though there were clouds blocking the sun, it still radiated warmth on his face.

It wasn't just the pure air or the views that took Percy's breath away; it was the energy of something old and ancient that made his bones feel like rubber and his heart feel like a deflated balloon. It reminded him of being around Kronos' old crypt. The only difference was that the energy had no direct source, being _everywhere,_ and it wasn't evil.

Shoving his hands in his pajama pockets, he started walking down the hills. This was obviously a dream; otherwise he wouldn't be walking in the middle of nowhere wearing a black t-shirt and pajama pants with no shoes. To be frank, when you're a demigod, that sort of thing happened all the time when you go to sleep. As soon as you close your eyes, some sort of god wants to chit-chat or send you visions that will make you want to cry like a baby when you wake up. Why couldn't they just leave Percy alone for a week or two? He needed a vacation.

As he walked, Percy could feel the grass under his feet slowly turn wiry and dry. The once-green ground he was on was yellow and dead, as if all the life from it had been sucked away and left to rot. The sun was growing unbearably hot, and the moisture in the air was sucked as dry as the grass.

The powerful energy Percy had felt before was growing stronger and stronger with each step, and was piling on him like extra gravity. Wherever he was walking to, maybe it wasn't such a happy place full of sunshine and rainbows after all.

By the time Percy had made it down the hill, he was covered in sweat that made his shirt cling to his body like a drape. There were still more hills ahead of him, and beyond that giant mountains that were impossible to cross. Where the heck was he supposed to go?

As if on cue, the air in front of the hills began to shimmer and fade like some sort of mirage. Percy wasn't sure if it was real or the heat at first, but as the hills began to fade out from existence, it became painfully obvious that it was no mirage. Instead of endless hills like he had seen before, ruins of what seemed to be ancient Greek foundations sat in front of him.

There wasn't anything of extreme importance he saw throughout the crumbled pillars and the heaps on rocks in front of him, except for the fact that they were Greek. Whoever sent him the dream wanted him to see this, and he had a sinking feeling that the ruins of some old rocks weren't exactly the full message.

Walking past the rocks in the ruins, he still couldn't understand why he was being shown all of this, much less having to walk all the way just to see what a god wanted to say. Dreams shouldn't be as exhausting as this one was now and he was hot, thirsty, and growing very grumpy. Percy had the urge to turn right on back, he was in no mood to deal with god of any kind.

Just before he could turn around, however, there was the message.

The sun god Apollo was sitting on the steps of some sort of round broken ancient Greek building, dressed in golden armor that was so bright it was hard to look at. The god didn't look happy at all; the once young, grinning face was replaced by an aged frown and a darkened expression. He could hardly be compared with the Apollo Percy had met so long ago to the god in front of him.

Unsure and hesitant, Percy cleared his throat. "Hey."

The sun god didn't even look up.

Percy cleared his throat again. "I said, _hey_."

The strange golden of the god's eyes flicked up to the demigod, but then back down in what seemed like disinterest. "Oh. Hi."

Okay, there was something seriously wrong with Apollo. Percy had never seen him look so down before. Maybe someone finally told him that his poems and haikus weren't as fabulous as he previously thought. "Are you okay...er, Apollo sir?"

Apollo continued to look down at the ground, raising his eyebrows with a blank stare. "Not really. Gods tend to get upset when one of their kin dies. Especially when your kin was killed by another one of your kin." With a sigh, he stood up and faced Percy. His expression was sad and tired. "War happens, Percy, and you can't stop the consequences. No matter how much you try to prevent them."

"Apollo...I-I'm sorry...we tried to get back to camp as soon as we can but—"

"What's done is done. You tried your best, and that's all I could've asked for."

Percy couldn't help but feel like dirt. Octavian wouldn't of died had they of gotten there sooner, and he wouldn't have to of been killed by his own sibling. The look Apollo had given him was the same as Hermes when he was holding Luke's body in Olympus, and the feeling was all the same; anguish and guilt.

"That's not why I brought you here, though. Do you know where we are?"

"…Some ancient piles of rock in the mountains?"

"…Yeah. Some ancient piles of rock in the mountains." Apollo smiled, and it was the most depressing thing Percy ever saw. "That's all they are today, aren't they? Well, these rocks do have a name, Percy. The Theater and Temple of Apollo. And Delphi, I guess. We shared."

Percy's stomach fell to his feet.

He had seen a picture of the temple before in one of Annabeth's architecture books before. When he asked Annabeth about it she gave him a thirty minute speech about the thing, to which he had fallen asleep halfway through. From the parts he could make out, she had said that the temple was sacred to Apollo, and was old as dirt.

"The Temple of Delphi? Does that mean we're in Greece?"

"Welcome the land of the gods, Percy Jackson." Apollo extended his hands and grinned, but it was sad. "Technically we're not really _at_ the temple, since this is a dream and all..." He shook his head and waved the thought off. "Anyway, I brought you here, Percy Jackson, because I need you and the camps to come here _specifically._"

"Okay... Why?"

Apollo groaned and put his head in his hand with a godly smack. "What is it with you mortals always asking questions? Can't you just agree and say 'Yes sir, Apollo sir. We will most definitely be there without asking a single question ever. You are so awesome.'"

"Well with all due respect, Apollo, most times when gods send us mortals to some place, it's a guarantee there'll be monsters waiting there to gobble us up. So yeah, we like to ask questions."

"Whatever. I need you guys to come here because this is where the final battle has to take place. Here, and nowhere else."

"Well...okay, but that still really didn't answer my question."

It was quiet for a couple of minutes. Apollo didn't respond and looked up to the sky, the clouds slowly closed in on the sun and darkened the earth below in an eerie darkness. It became suddenly cold, making Percy shiver a bit and his toes to become numb. "Because, little demigod, this is where it all begins. Gaia is starting her quest of destroying the world here."

Gaia, the mother of Titans and ugly monsters alike, was going to obliterate the world starting with the place closest to the gods; Greece. Of course she was going to start with Greece. What better way to start destroying the world then to rub your victory in your enemies' faces?

"…Oh." Feeling a little embarrassing he hadn't understood sooner, Percy kicked the dust with a foot and muttered, "_That's_ why."

"That's exactly why, Percy Jackson. If this place is destroyed, the gods will lose a huge chunk of their power." Still standing, the god swept his arms out and gestured at the whole theater. "How much do you know about this theater, Mr. Jackson?"

It was hard, but Percy racked his mind and felt some facts surface. "Well… It was a theater built in the city of Delphi. It was dedicated to you. Very sacred. Um… And Delphi, the patron of the city, had a temple here where she would give prophecies to the people."

"Good, keep going…"

"Well…" He felt his brain smoking. "I-I'm not sure. In the times when Christianity was sweeping across Europe, people started believing Delphi less. They mistook her riddles for nonsense. The essence of prophecy-giving and heart of one of the most sacred temples was dissolved with the coming of the new age."

"Very good." Eyebrows raised in surprised appreciation, Apollo took a seat again and motioned for Percy to sit on the crumbling steps with him. "That's exactly what happened. Prophets and seers played huge parts in Greek culture. Delphi, the best prophet aside from me, was very well one of the centers of Greek culture. Now are you seeing why you need to come here?"

Percy didn't, and he admitted so.

"The Temple of Delphi is one of the biggest roots in the tree of our lives. If Gaia severs that, they tree can easily fall. I would give a sonnet about it, but I'm not feeling up to finding poetry in something so terrible." The sun god sighed once more, heavily. "How will we stop Gaia and her goonies from blowing up the planet if we can't even save our tree, huh, Percy?"

Even though he was just in a dream, Percy felt really queasy, and looking around, he could almost see what could have been seen so long ago. People sitting up on the steps, dressed in robes, talking and laughing and watching people in masks dancing on the floor below. Delphi sitting in the little temple at the side of the theater, speaking in tongues. It was all so sad to Percy.

He swallowed hard. "So that's why we have to come. Gaia thinks she can do the most damage at our roots. If we fight, though, she'll be so occupied with us, she won't destroy the theater."

"Never underestimate the Earth Goddess," warned Apollo. "She is stronger than you can ever imagine. All I'm saying is that this is where she'll strike, and you want to be here and prepared." The god nodded slowly at the demigod. "However, you felt the power of this place, Percy. If the gods lose the Temple, it'll be disastrous for everyone." Something else suddenly shadowed Apollo's expression like a bad thought starting to surface. "…Before I let you go, there's something else I should probably tell you."

Lightning thrashed violently across the sky, splaying out its electric fingers with blinding light and ear-popping intensity. The sky became darker and darker, filling with thick clouds so black it was like someone flicked a light switch on the sun. That was not just a random storm. Zeus, no matter how debilitated, was obviously warning Apollo about what he was going to say next.

"Apollo sir, I don't know if you should—"

"Believe me, little dude. You might want to know what I have to say. I don't care what the man upstairs has to say about it…much." Apollo cleared his throat and glanced warily at the sky. "Being a god as its perks, but also its disadvantages. I can see the future. Not very clear all the time, but it's there."

He paused for a moment, and then continued. "In war, there are two different kinds of sacrifice: sacrifices for the sake of war and sacrifices to end it. Unfortunately, both kinds are needed for a true victory, but that's not always a good thing. "

"Just remember, Percy Jackson; this war will come to an end, but before it does, sacrifices must be made. One day you're going to be faced with a choice you cannot make, an action you cannot prevent. The only thing you can do is prepare for the pain when it happens, and know that it must. Octavian died for the Greeks and Romans to come together for this war. His death marked the first of a road of pain and suffering. Whose death is going to mark the last?"

With that, a sudden suffocating blanket of darkness fell onto Percy and he only had the chance to gasp in the black before fading away from the mountains.

He didn't know what time of day it was when he woke, but the second Percy opened his eyes it was like surfacing from too long spent under water that he couldn't breathe in. A rattling gasp shook his lungs, but then cotton filled his mouth and he was forced to open his eyes and see where the Hades he was.

The lovely scent of lemon and clean laundry greeted Percy and he suddenly remembered. His head was leaning against Annabeth's chest, his arms were draped loosely around her (oh gods, was he subconsciously touching her butt all night long?) and their legs were tangled together. Annabeth had one of her hands around her boyfriend's neck, but the other was folded under her cheek.

Percy wanted to _want_ to stay there, to lay there motionless and wait until the world needed him again to move from the spot, but he couldn't. The dream with Apollo and the Temple of Delphi was still fresh in his mind, still making his heart beat unevenly in his chest.

"Annabeth." The word was mumbled, practically inaudible against the nightshirt all but suffocating Percy. He nudged her gently, but made no effort to sit up or open his eyes. "Annabeth, we need to call a meeting."

The daughter of Athena made a quiet groaning noise in the back of her throat, but she didn't say anything or move at all either.

"Annabeth." Percy nudged her again, but that time a little harder. "Wake up, sunshine. We need to—"

"I know; I heard." Still yawning, Annabeth peeled herself away and started crawling over her boyfriend to get out of bed. "And I agree. If you had the dream I did," She stumbled upright on the floor and stretched the sleepiness from her bones, "we're going to need to talk to the others as soon as possible."

It didn't surprise Percy that Annabeth had the same dream as him. Apollo was pretty likely to visit more than just him, though; what he had to say was incredibly important for their quest. It just startled Percy briefly that Annabeth cut to the chase so quickly. Had she been awake before he tried waking her? Maybe she just didn't like laying in bed cuddling as much as he did. That was a shame.

Percy forced himself out of bed and rubbed at his eyes. "Yeah. I wish Apollo hadn't been so vague, though."

"He was?" One of Annabeth's eyebrows rose in confusion. "Maybe we had different dreams."

They stood there, squinting at one another for a second, before she finally shrugged.

"No. I just know more than you do." There was a small smile on Annabeth's face, and she patted Percy's cheek with affection. "No offense, Perce. You know plenty of things."

"But not as much as you."

"I don't know if that's even possible."

Percy stared at her.

"Anyways, I should be going before too many people notice I was gone." Annabeth redid her braid quickly and only stopped briefly in front of the door. "Perce?"

Turning to look at her, Percy got pulled into a quick hug.

"Thank you." There was another smile on Annabeth's face, a more genuine one, and as quick as she'd arrived, she left, swinging the wooden door closed behind her.

The second he was alone in his room, Percy had sudden, crazy doubts that his girlfriend had even been there in the first place. Maybe he'd dreamt that, too.

If that had been the case, what an awesome dream.

It took a few minutes to shower, dress properly and brush his teeth, but when he did, Percy left his cabin (remembering to strap on the scabbard of his borrowed sword just in case) and went to go hunt down Annabeth again. She needed to be there when he caught the others for a meeting.

Ironically, however, the second he reached to the porch of the Athena cabin and raised his hand to knock on the door, it flew open.

"Percy," acknowledged Annabeth swiftly, and then she promptly took his hand and began dragging him towards the Aphrodite cabin. "I hope Leo's not still working on the fleet, because I don't know exactly where it is and we don't want to get lost in the forest. Maybe Piper will be awake, though. It's pretty early, I mean..."

She started rattling off everything on her mind, a sure sign that she was getting frazzled and her mind was running out of free space for calming down. Percy just let her ramble and drag him to the terrifyingly pink Barbie cabin.

Annabeth pounded on the door and waited a second.

"Who the _Hades_ is knocking on our-" Drew stepped out, wearing tiny pieces of pink fabric for pajamas, hair tangled and face drooped from sleep, and a scary amount of green paste on her face. Percy didn't understand why she sneered at him and Annabeth when her face looked like a moldy cupcake iced by Tyson. "Oh, it's you two. _Piper,_" Drew shouted back into the building. "Get out of the shower; your friends have come to wake up the entire cabin again."

There were several upset grumbles from campers who were still trying to sleep.

"Sorry if we're bothering your beauty sleep, but I think this is a little bit more important than sleeping in." Percy shot back crossly at the Aphrodite demigod. "You could be doing something useful yourself, you know. Instead of complaining and painting your nails."

"Uh-huh." Drew replied plainly, waving her hand in Percy's face in dismissal. "Whatever, kid. You're not even interesting enough to bother with. But you did remind me, I haven't painted my nails in a while. Maybe I should." She only sneered at them one more time, and then turned on her heels and strutted back into the cabin, whiffs of perfume hitting Percy like a truck.

Thank the gods Piper was nothing like her half-brothers and sisters.

In a (pleasantly) stark contrast to Drew, Piper came out of the cabin wearing a ratty, washed-out P!ink shirt and holy jeans, with her hair dripping from her shower. There were no painted nails, perfume that could knock out a minotaur, green paste on her face, or anything unnatural about her whatsoever. It was almost hard to believe she was the daughter of Aphrodite.

"Ugh, sorry about the doorman." Piper grinned at Annabeth, fishing a small eagle feather out of her pocket. "I've been meaning to replace her for a while now."

"That'd be a good idea," agreed Annabeth quickly as her friend began braiding the feather into her hair, "but listen. Percy and I had a dream."

The laughter quickly drained from the other girl's face, and she stopped braiding. "A dream?" It was obvious that that wasn't the first time she'd heard of it. She glanced from side to side, as though searching for something briefly. "Jason came t-"

"Jason had the dream, too?"

Piper nodded, her gaze turning distant as she continued to work the eagle feather into her hair with nimble fingers. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess he did...If it's the same dream you are talking about, of course. Was, uh-"

"Apollo," said the son of Poseidon the same time the daughter of Aphrodite asked, "Apollo?" as well.

"Where is Jason now?"

"He was going to get the others before coming back and waking you two." Though she seemed to be insinuating that she knew Percy and Annabeth slept in the same cabin that night, Piper didn't note anything else. Her dark eyes skimmed the area from which her boyfriend would be coming with the others. "He left before I went to take a shower; he should be back soon."

"Speaking of soon…" Annabeth squinted over at where the point of the forest blocked the view of the chariot tracks, where, at that second, several teenagers were walking towards them. Jason was in the middle, with Frank and Hazel on either side, and Leo stumbling to catch up to them while buckling his suspenders to his pants.

When the seven were finally together again, Jason, Annabeth and Percy exchanged frowny, contemplative looks.

"…We need to make an announcement at breakfast," said Percy after a few seconds of silence.

"Yeah." The son of Jupiter drew his girlfriend to his side with an arm. "This is big, and everyone needs to know as soon as possible."

"Are you ever going to tell the rest of us what the Hades is going on here?" asked Leo. His face was covered in dirt and oil, as usual, but his eyes were bloodshot and sagging like he hadn't slept at all that night. "It kind of sucks how you don't t—"

"_Percy Jackson."_

Startled, Percy turned towards the shout just in time to have his legs swept out from under him and get slammed onto the ground.

"What the—?" he gasped in surprise and pain, and opened his eyes to see a sight more terrifying than a bloodthirsty monster: Reyna.

"What did you do with him?" she growled, holding her forearm tightly to Percy's throat.

Percy felt himself get light-headed with lack of oxygen. "I d…I don't know…w-what you're…"

"_Octavian_! What did you do with his body?"

"R-Reyna, I d—"

"He's _gone_!"

"P…Ple—"

Suddenly, the weight was gone from Percy's throat and air rushed into his lungs in several agonizing breaths. He blinked and saw Annabeth crouching over him protectively, one of her fists still balled from the punch she's thrown at the other girl.

"We don't know what happened to Octavian's body, Reyna," she said, eyes full of fire, "but don't even think about trying to hurt Percy again or I'll kill you." The startling part was that she sounded incredibly serious with her threat.

"I'm fine, Annabeth," Percy insisted as he stood, coughing and massaging his neck. "Octavian's body is gone?"

Blood dripped from the nasty split on Reyna's lip where she got punched, the skin around the mark already turning purple. She made no move to wipe the liquid from her chin. "Yes. The shroud's empty and he's just…gone."

"Well, Percy didn't touch him."

"How would you know?" Reyna sneered at Annabeth, making the stream of blood on her chin wider. "Unwavering trust, or something else? I thought your cabins were far apart, or did they not need to be last night?"

"I—" A furious pink color washed over the other girl's face and she looked like she could murder the Roman right then and there.

"Okay, okay. That's enough." Jason waved his hands in a truce sign and stepped between them. "Reyna, a few of us had dreams from Apollo. If I remember right, he said something about him taking his kin back to Camp Jupiter for a proper ritual."

"He did?" asked Annabeth, Percy and Reyna at the same time.

"Why didn't you say that before?" the son of Poseidon asked crossly, feeling a bruise where Reyna's arm had been imbedding itself into his throat. "You know, before I nearly got strangled to death."

Brows furrowing, Jason said hesitantly, "Apollo was vague. He just said something like his kin deserved a proper ritual and he was seeing to that, or something."

"He didn't say any of that to me," Percy said.

Annabeth crossed her arms. "Me either."

"Me three! You know why? _I have no idea what you guys are talking about." _Leo, looking cranky from exhaustion, butted in and quite literally put his foot down. "Why aren't you telling the rest of us what happened?"

Hazel and Frank, looking unsure whether to start an argument with the others, mumbled some agreement and glanced at Annabeth, Percy and Jason expectantly.

"Personally, I was just waiting to tell the dream at breakfast so we only had to tell it once." Jason shrugged. "Sorry, dude."

By that time, the other campers were starting to emerge from their cabins, drawn to the loud discussion the seven (plus Reyna) were having. Most of them were dressed, fresh from morning showers and looking mostly awake. They tried to be inconspicuous as they stared sideways at the group. Others were still in their pajamas with wild hair, stumbling out and squinting around grumpily, trying to find the source of commotion.

Though he didn't care too much, Percy sighed and shook his head. "Let's just get to breakfast and tell everyone what we know."

"I'm hesitant to believe what Jason says, Percy," Reyna said coolly before heading away, "but if he's wrong, I, personally, will send you straight back to _Tartarus_, right where all of the filth of this world belongs, and that's a promise."

"I know." Somehow, Percy managed a little smile at the Roman, and put his arm around his girlfriend to leave for breakfast.

"Quiet down everyone, please."

Chiron's voice and stamp of hoof, as usual, had the ability to cut the most boisterous of noise of the demigods.

Voices quieted slowly, turning into a few curious whispers from the Romans and respectful gazes from the rest. Forks were set on plates and cups were lowered.

The centaur cleared his throat again. "I think a few of our campers have updates to give, and Mr. Jackson over here has something else he wishes to share afterwards."

"Um, Chiron, _before_ would be best," Jason stood, and when Chiron nodded at him, he beckoned for Percy and Annabeth to step forwards, too. "Go ahead, man."

Hundreds of pairs of eyes trained on him as Percy shifted to look at them all. A brief lump of nervousness formed in his stomach, but he swallowed it down and began. "Apollo came to Annabeth, Jason and I in our dreams last night. We now know where we need to go once we get to Greece, and why."

"Taco Bell," said someone in the back (no doubt Travis or Connor) and snickers filled the area.

"Let's please try to be serious about this." Annabeth put her hands on her hips and directed her snappy tone to the entirety of the group. "The fate of our world rests on these days. If we don't stop Gaia by next week, there won't be any Taco Bell to joke about. So please, _shut up_ and listen to what Percy's saying."

Only giving his girlfriend a sideways glance of gratitude, Percy continued. "There's a mountain in Greece called Mount Pineapple—"

"Mount Parnassus."

"Mount Parnassus. It's where the ancient city of Delphi used to be." Like that, Percy told the huge group of half-bloods the dream he had, recounting the details as best as he could, with Jason and Annabeth adding things every now and again.

When he was done, Jason held out his hands. "So now we have a plan. As soon as we're done with breakfast, we pack up the Argo II and the fleet of zeppelins and head to Greece. We'll go to Mount Parnassus, kick butt, and then be on our way. Gaia's army doesn't stand a chance against us. Losing this battle is not an option. We _will_ be victorious."

To Jason's lame pep talk, more than half of the demigods stood up and pumped their arms, waving what weapons (forks being the majority) they brought to breakfast in the air.

"Leo," Jason looked over at his crazy friend, and there was even a smile on his face as well. "Status report on our transportation."

Leo, despite looking exhausted, grinned. "Let's see about that…" He put his fingers in his lips (which didn't look hygienic at all) and whistled as loudly as he could.

Everyone turned in the direction the son of Hephaestus whistled. It took a few seconds, but then, shapes began crawling into view over the tree line. The fleet of a dozen airships came into view. Their celestial bronze exoskeleton shined brightly in the morning sun, ringed with weapons that ranged from giant machine guns to ballistae to what looked to Percy like huge electric crossbows.

A banner was flying behind the ship in front that said GREECE OR BUST.

Percy's mouth popped open as the zeppelins slowed to a stop above the beach in a long line and rope ladders flew down from the bottom. Cheering kids of Hephaestus and Vulcan slid down the ladders and began running towards the dining pavilion.

"Leo," Annabeth said, staring open-jawed like everyone else at the warships. "Have I ever told you how freaking incredible you are?"

Leo, beaming, put his hands on his hips and accepted the glowing gazes of praise. "No. No, you haven't."

"Well, I'm seriously considering it."

Silence from the shock settled and people began turning their eyes back to the seven demigods, who were all in a line at the head table. A sense of excitement and duty and only a bit of dread swelled from person to person, filling the air.

Percy felt it, too, as thick as butter, and he glanced behind him at his mentor. "You'll be coming with us, right, Chiron? You can have a spot in the Argo II."

The old centaur smiled sadly, looking—for once—his age. "No, my boy. This is not my journey to take. I'm just a teacher. Who else would take care of the younger campers if I leave?"

That made sense, but Percy didn't feel right going without him.

As if knowing how upset his student was, Chiron put his hand on Percy's shoulder. "Don't worry. If anyone can save the world again, it would be you seven. I have complete faith in you." After finishing his sentence, a thought shadowed over his face. "Which reminds me, I have a message from Grover."

Brief excitement, and then dread, made the son of Poseidon's mouth taste like metal. With all of this 'end of the world' stuff, he hadn't even thought of his best friend. "Grover? Is he okay? I haven't felt anything. I mean, our empathy link."

"He's fine," the centaur reassured him, "but the fire the Roman's started killed young Juniper's tree. About an hour before you arrived he left, completely distraught. He told me to tell you not to worry at all, and if there was a way he could help he would, but he couldn't stay. Not after Juniper."

Juniper? Grover's girlfriend? He'd always seen them holding hands and joking around and Grover just loved her so much. Her tree was killed in the fire?

"If you see him again," said Percy through a tight throat, "tell him I'm sorry, and…and that I'll come back. Juniper will not have died in vain."

Unintentional hatred for the Romans bubbled up in Percy's throat but he pushed it down, knowing that he couldn't think about that. It wasn't the Romans that caused all of this suffering.

It was all Gaia. She ripped the families of his friends apart, tore him from his roots, caused the biggest war in history. She was the cause of all of this and she would pay.

Feeling anger red hot and thick, Percy turned slowly back to the crowd of demigods awaiting instructions.

He pulled his borrowed sword out of its scabbard and gripped it in his hand. "So who's ready to cross an ocean and bust some heads?"

The cries of hundreds of slightly-battle-ready demigods could be heard for miles.

Time to kick some Earthly butt.

It was nighttime on the Argo II. Annabeth was standing at the bow of the great warship, listening to the waves of the ocean murmur below. She couldn't see through the blanket of black that had settled upon the world, but she sensed behind them the dozen other airships flying in formation. Most everyone would be sleeping by then, readying themselves for the day they had ahead of themselves.

Arrangements had been made right before departure. Annabeth would sleep on the floor of Piper's room and Reyna would take Annabeth's. Nico, who'd been trying to stay out of the way, agreed to hitch a ride on one of the zeppelins instead of ride in the Argo II.

Coach Hedge appeared again after breakfast, too, and took his usual room, acting more determined and solemn than usual. He would be the guardian again, but with so many demigods, they felt more like one solid unit rather than teams under leaders.

Each ship had a sentry on guard at all times, taking shifts. Reyna wanted to take the midnight shift, but Annabeth couldn't sleep a wink and took her place, much to her arguing.

The world was so peaceful, but it had no idea what was in store the next few days. With every passing second, the lump of dread in Annabeth's stomach grew bigger and bigger. It felt like it was eating her alive, making her want to scream and stomp and tear it out with her fingernails.

Every part of this war seemed to be geared to shaming Annabeth. She felt weak and embarrassed and pathetic, like she didn't belong fighting alongside all of her friends. In the daytime she had to hold it all back, like holding back vomit, but there in the dark it seemed to be amplified.

Annabeth's shoulders shook and her hands gripped the shield railings, closing her eyes against the cool ocean air.

"If you can hear me, Mom," she whispered to the dark depth of the sea below, "please let us get through this alive. The world is counting on us. On _me. _I've never done something so big without the help of the gods. We _do_ have more people on our side than we've ever had before, but I've never felt so alone." The lump of dread moved from her stomach to her throat, cold wind whipping his hair around her face. "I'm scared."

There was a burning in Annabeth's eyes and she blinked, letting two tears roll down her cheeks. She was thankful that it was in the middle of the night where no one could see her in pain like this.

"_Your lack of faith in us is disappointing._"

Annabeth snapped her head up and looked around, but nothing but the few dim lights allowed on the ship could be seen.

_"We haven't left you alone quite yet, child. You forget this is our fight, too." _The faint voice of the goddess of wisdom, Athena, echoed on the ship deck eerily. Or was it just in Annabeth's head? _"Just because our sides have torn doesn't mean they aren't mending. With every friendship the Greeks and the Romans make, we grow stronger."_

"But Mom—Lady Athena—even if we win, what then?" the sorrowful tone of Annabeth's voice sounded unusually loud compared to her mother's voice in her head. "Reyna said she was going to start another war between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood. Even if we win the war with Gaia…"

"_Destiny has a way of figuring itself out. Hope isn't lost until you deem it so, remember that. The same goes for the gods. You're never alone, Annabeth. A part of me is inside of you, an inextinguishable flame that will lead you in the right direction. Listen to your instincts and let fate run its course. The path is already woven; all you have to do is walk it."_

"That doesn't help me!" hissed Annabeth angrily. "If you're going to make me feel like one of those insane people who hear voices all the time, at least tell me something useful that will help us defeat Gaia or something."

The only answer was the wind.

Annabeth put her head in her hands and her elbows on the railing.

Part of her knew that she wasn't _really _alone, even though the gods seemed to be absent from that quest. She always had Percy, and he was such a huge part of her life.

Having Athena speak to her like that, though… Were the gods really going to be fighting on their side? If they were, they might even have a chance to _win _this war. The chances seemed so slim to Annabeth, though. The gods were pretty debilitated from the whole Greek/Roman merge. This was one war they would have to fight mostly on their own.

Even if the gods _did_ join, would they be strong enough to fight the force of the Earth, or were those days just the beginning of the end of the world?


	9. Chapter 9

**PERCY'S POV**

Everything hurt.

Every single cell in my body ached for the numbness of death, ached for something to stop before it had to start. I had to ignore it and push my body on.

Every hour I could feel my mind splitting in two. It was like I was living the dream of a different person. I didn't get scared like that. I didn't feel so much terror and loss that it nearly rips me apart from limb to limb. Every hour it hit me harder, dragging me down further.

I didn't want to die, I didn't want to see my friends die. I didn't want to see the world end. I wanted to sleep, to fall into a slumber forever with the way things were, never to wake up to that nightmare I was living. Life wasn't so kind to spare us from such injustice. Mercy didn't exist in the face of that war.

I had to be strong enough to fight, regardless of this great unhappiness that rocked me to my core. I couldn't quit because I cared too much. I cared too much for my friends, for the world, and for the love of my life.

It was hard to be happy and hopeful when you knew you were sailing closer and closer to the place you were going to die at. I couldn't help but imagine my body lying on the dead grass of Delphi, my dark red blood pooling out and mingling with other blood that lie on the grass, my friends all lying dead around me.

Every so often I wondered who was the first to die in my visions. Me? Annabeth? Jason? Who? Then I wondered about why I was wondering about such terrible things.

I guess it didn't matter, but I always hoped that I would die protecting someone, that my death actually meant something in a war that means everything. I knew that that wasn't true, and I knew it didn't help, but imagining me dead made me feel better. Like seeing the future, and preparing yourself for when it becomes present. It helped me to be less afraid.

I didn't like it when I imagined my friends dead, though. It didn't make me feel better or make me cope imagining them dead beside me like it did when I imagined myself that way. I wanted to remember them by how they were in life, not in death. I didn't want to imagine them lifeless. I didn't want to imagine the horror forever plastered on their faces... I wanted them to be okay.

They had to make it out alive, even if I didn't.

The clouds were surrounding us like gray-feathered vultures to helpless prey, warning us that death hangs as heavy on our heads as it does on our hearts. Not even the weather could allow us a ray of sunshine.

There wasn't going to be a rainbow at the end of the storm, the message was clear. We were going to lose everything we'd worked for, everything that we had ever held dear. Something precious was going to be ripped away from us, and we didn't have a choice. It was going to change the very essence of who we were, and erase the memory of who we used to be. Even if we survived the next day, what was going to be left of us? Who were we going to be? Could we really exist if all that was left of us was an empty shell?

I couldn't take it anymore. Everything in me that had been bottling up was just too much to handle.

I needed to talk to someone. I needed to share my feelings of doom and despair. My feelings were a volcano that refused to erupt and blacken the sky with its putrid ash and dirt, and if I could just let a little out I would feel so much better. It was a little selfish of me to do, but I was scared and I needed to erupt.

I couldn't help but migrate to where my girlfriend was.

I didn't even think about it. I just walked towards her direction like a mindless ant finding its way back to its home. My feet dragged along like a stiff corpse. That was the only noise on the ship: the scuffling of my feet. The air was stale, seeming to hold its breath. It knew what was in store. What about all the other people on the ship, though? What were they doing to stall the mess of emotions floating around? Perhaps they were doing the same thing I was doing; bottling up everything inside and letting it rip them to shreds like a monster in a cage.

When I opened the door to my girlfriend's room, I saw her standing there in the middle covering her eyes.

She was so strong before. Ever since Tartarus, she'd been slowly sinking into an inescapable pit of despair and it _scared_ me. Even then, it didn't seem much like her to have such a breakdown, but there she was.

Her shoulders wretched back and forth and she sobbed into her hands, her body wobbling like it doesn't have the strength to hold up everything anymore. Her once beautiful golden curls were now dim yellow, and her clothes that once looked new were washed-out and hung off of her thinning body. Even through all of these changes, those differences that had forever altered the way she looks, I couldn't stop myself from being stunned at how beautiful she looked.

She turned around to face me, her gray eyes rimmed with red and dripping with tears. Her hair was a tangled mess. I was stunned at her beauty once more. How gorgeous can a creature be that she stuns every function in your body, wrenches your heart, and stops all brain activity with one tearful glance? I couldn't even fathom how on earth she became mine.

It was rude to stare. I knew that before that whole thing had happened, she would have laughed and told me to stop staring. I couldn't then, though.

In that one split second I was breathless, she ran to me and I opened my arms for embrace. Not a single word came between us as she collided with my chest, yanking my breath away. All we could do was collapse on the floor, holding each other, sobbing like we had never sobbed before, kissing each other like he had never kissed before.

Together in our tight embrace, we shared each other's pain and feelings. We shared our fears for what would come. We held onto each other so tightly I swore I bled from where her fingers were digging into my skin.

I thought we were doing that because we knew we might not make it, and if we let go for even a split second the world would end. I didn't care if it wasn't true; all I could do was cry and hold her and never let go, because I was afraid, because she was afraid, and most of all because I loved her and I wanted to be with her for however long we have until the bloodshed.

So I didn't dare let go, I didn't dare let my grip loose. For if I did, I feared she'd be washed away and would never come back.

All I could do was breathe in the scent of her hair and feel where her fists balled my shirt up on my back. I held her.

I didn't know how long we were there on the floor of her room.

The next thing I knew, though, there was a knock on the room door. We pulled away, gasping for air and wiping our faces and not feeling a shred of guilt.

My girlfriend cleared her throat the best she could, trying to make her voice even as she asked who it was.

A timid, shaking voice announced that we were only about half an hour from our destination. Hazel didn't come in, but that was fine for us.

It was a little difficult to stand, but when I did, I offered my hand to help my girlfriend up. I noticed when I took her hand how weak her grip was and how her fingers trembled in mine. Wordless, she reached over to the set of armor laid out on her bed. I helped her strap everything on and pressed my lips to her forehead when we were done.

I had to leave for a few minutes to put on my own armor and get my backup sword, but when I got back she was still standing there in her room, arms crossed tightly over her chest as if her heart would fall out if she let go.

I took her hand and we walked out together.

The deck that was so silent before boomed with shouts and the loud footsteps of demigods scrambling to get ready for the ship to land. People eager to pass us simply rammed their way pasted, not pausing once to even apologize. It was complete chaos, and that's how I expected the end of the world to start.

Everything was happening in a blur, nothing really sinking in as well as it would have, I saw flashes of armor and tops of green mountains and hazy figures of warships above. Someone shouted something to me, and I nodded.

There was to be a scout group to look around the site beforehand.

In my head, I figured it was just about a death sentence, but I didn't say anything as most of the members of the Argo II and a pair of demigods from each zeppelin was lowered onto the ground.

I wished there was some sort of breeze to push away the stifling feeling of doom the mountains expelled or, at least, cool the nervous sweat prickling on the back of my neck. However, there was no sign of life or movement from the land around except for the hum of the airships and the demigods sliding down from ropes.

By "no sign of life" I meant the whole world around was practically colorless; the grass was dead and dry and looked like it had grown in a black-and-white movie. Even the air around was stale and carried a putrid stench. Dark grey clouds rolled low in the sky, blocking out what little sunshine we may have had that day.

I closed my eyes briefly, as if it might help me pretend that I wasn't where I was. Even so, I couldn't ignore the feeling of the rope in my shaking fingers and the numbness in my toes as we descended. As I slid down, inch by inch, the numbness spread slowly up from my toes up my legs and into my chest and head. By the time my sneakers touched the ground and I stood, my whole body felt useless and empty, like if there was wind I would have blown away like a leaf in the breeze.

All around me demigods were dropping to the ground, each of them looking as though there were experiencing what I was. My girlfriend dropped to my side and touched my arm briefly before following the others down the mountainside. It scared me that I couldn't even feel her touch.

As we walked, I felt as I did in my dream, with the same dead grass and the same ominous sky above.

When we got to the ruins of the temple, the demigods looked around wearily, their hands poised on their weapons as if expecting a fight. The Roman praetor beckoned half the group to follow her, hair escaping her braid and tumbling down her purple cape. My girlfriend looked like she was about to argue, but thought better of it and led the other half in the other direction.

I stayed behind, letting my legs subconsciously drag me to the platform where Delphi used to do her readings. While I was examining the platform, there came a quiet sound from behind me and I turned, pulling my sword out of its scabbard.

I swung blindly, hitting a column of ancient bricks, which crashed loudly to the ground. It took me a couple of second to realize that there wasn't anyone behind me and I had just broke apart part of Apollo's sacred temple. I half expected him to come down and smite me until I was a pile of ashes.

In a moment of panic, I tried putting the old stones back together, cringing every time it crumbled back onto the ground in a messy heap. After about my fourth attempt, I heard that sound again, and saw a nearby squirrel turn into Frank Zhang.

He held up his hands in surrender, making me apologize for nearly killing him. Now with Frank's help, we began the fifth attempt at putting the column back together.

I knew we should have been with the rest of the group. We should have been scouting out signs of Gaia and her army but I was afraid, and I was stalling. It was wrong of me, but panic was setting in and I wanted to scream. It was all I could do not to have a breakdown.

What if my friends go searching and run face-first into an ambush? I should be there with them. I shouldn't be playing with blocks; I should be out there with my girlfriend and seeing that no one gets hurt. Was I such a coward I couldn't even be on the front lines with my friends? Was I really that much of a wimp?

Before I could stand and tell my feelings to Frank, something on one of the crumpled bricks caught my eye. I picked it up and rolled it over in my hands, finding a barely readable Greek inscription carved into the stone. It took a bit of focusing, but it finally made sense:

**THE WORLD MUST FALL.**

The words were shaped in my mouth, but the second they left my lips the ground began to quake. A sudden wind sprung up and whipped the hair around my face.

I spun to look over the valley, just to see the very mountains around us shifting. Thunder cracked and the sky darkened even more, if that was possible. My name was called, but I could stop staring out at the scene before me.

Huge forms of monsters began erupting form the boiling soil, sending chunks of earth flying fifty feet into the air. Shrieks and howls of monsters filled the air like a giant battle horn being blown. The air vibrated with charged tension and energy.

So this was it.

I watched my friends dive headfirst into the mass of bodies, and below me folded out the beginning of the end of the world.


End file.
